Haunted Legacies: Season 2
by DragonShadow
Summary: Episode 25: Wade's Third Date. Wade meets his online best friend for a long time in the hopes of her becoming his first girlfriend, but first he has to overcome his own issues.
1. Precious Jasmine

(Notes:

1: If you haven't read them yet, I recommend reading "Til Death Do Us Part" and "Haunted Legacies: Season 1" first. But they are not required to enjoy this season.

2: Once again, this season will be updated every Friday, early in the morning. So keep an eye out.

3: This season will feature chapters with various characters and even ones starring entirely different fandoms, though all link together in the same universe and intertwine with one another.

4: If at any point you think you know what's coming next, think again.)

Episode 20: Precious Jasmine

The sky was clear and the whistling of the wind through the grass on the small hill outside of town was met with the blare of trumpets shouting to the heavens. The crowd seated on lawn chairs spread across the grass in neat rows and lines watched as the small parade of students in black robes marched single-file toward the front of the gathering. Cheers erupted from parents and families as each reached the principal of Casper High School to receive their ticket to the rest of their life.

"Dash Baxter," The principal called. The entire crowd rose to its feet around Sam, Danny, and Star as the massive boy walked up the steps to the podium, waving as if to a crowd of adoring fans.

Sam leaned over to whisper conspiratorially to her friends. "Yeah, I'm glad to see him gone too." Danny and Star hid their chuckles behind their hands.

They watched the procession of former students making their way around and then back to their seats in the front rows. The line of students crept on until at last, Danny heard a good reason to cheer.

"Jasmine Fenton." Danny, Sam, and Star all leapt to their feet, clapping their hands together. To Danny's surprise, most of those seated in the audience rose to their feet as the red-headed Fenton girl approached the Principal with a broad, uncontained grin on her lips. After she retrieved her diploma and shook her principal's hand, she turned to the crowd and pumped the diploma into the air, causing the crowd to roar even louder.

Danny heard a sniffle from behind, and turned to comfort his mother, but instead saw his father hunched over nearly in tears. "Our baby girl is growing up so fast."

"No Jack." Maddie patted her husband's shoulder with an understanding smile. "She's growing no more, she's a woman now. Soon she'll be off on her own to college. Oh…" She sniffled and wiped a tear from her eye. "I'm so proud… aren't you proud Danny?"

"Huh?" Danny was snapped back to reality after drifting off for a moment, realizing his mom was looking right at him. "Oh, yeah." Danny turned to face forward again, watching his sister skip merrily from the podium down toward her seat. "Proud…" He wanted to feel it, but it was something else that suddenly filled his heart to the brim.

After the ceremony had passed the families and graduates stood to find one another, and Jazz came charging up to them, nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet as she walked, making her thick black robes bounce around her ankles. "I did it! I did it! 4.0! Harvard here I come! Yyyeeeeee!" She squealed in excitement and wrapped her mother in a tight hug.

"I'm so proud of you, sweetie!" Maddie grinned wildly and clutched her daughter close to her.

"Yeah, great going, Jazz." Star grinned and hugged her from the side, since Maddie still had her from the front.

"Congratulations," Sam added with a more subdued smile.

Danny thought to say something, but he couldn't make himself speak.

"We just HAVE to celebrate. We have to." Maddie finally let her daughter go. "We should all go out for a fancy dinner as a family."

"Can Star come?" Jazz draped one arm around her best friend's shoulders.

"Of course." Maddie nodded.

"There's only one meal fit for a time like this." Jack waved his finger in the air, signaling that what he was saying was important. "The thickest, juiciest, bloodiest steaks money can buy! Come on, I know just the place!" Jack grabbed Jazz and Star to carry them back toward the Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle like a pair of footballs. Danny watched Maddie follow after them with a look of concern on her face, feeling strangely numb with the proceedings.

Suddenly a hand touched his arm, drawing his attention to Sam, who was looking at him with worried eyes and a gentle smile. "You okay, Danny?" Her arm moved down to twine her fingers with his. The shining gold wedding ring on her finger pressed against his hand, reminding him, as always, that they could share anything.

Danny shook his head, finally finding the will to say two words. "She's leaving."

Sam smiled wider and squeezed his hand, speaking in a soft tone. "Yeah. She is."

"I just realized." Danny gulped. "I always knew it'd happen, but it's like… I never thought about it. It was always later, and now it's almost… 'now'."

"It's what Jazz has always wanted. I don't want to see her go either, but we can't stop her. She's living her life. Finally, after all that happened before…" Sam trailed off, but left no doubt in Danny's mind what she was referring to. Hope, the daughter she had had, and been forced to give up.

"Yeah. I know." Danny sighed. "Come on. They're waiting for us." With a gentle tug on Sam's arm, Danny walked toward the Fenton RV pulling Sam behind him. The jingling of the chains on Sam's leather pants warned those in the RV that they were coming.

Their hands remained locked as they climbed into the vehicle and slid the side door closed. Jazz and Star spoke in high, excited voices about what the future would bring, all of the things that Jazz would do in the rest of her life. The subject never turned to the fact that Jazz would soon be leaving Amity Park, even though Star had to be realizing it as well. Over the last year they had grown extremely close, and did almost everything together.

For the most part, he was able to act happy through dinner. Sam stayed by his side the whole time, knowing with almost psychic intuition when he was about to break down, and taking his hand beneath the table to keep it from happening. With her support Danny made it through dinner and the ride home in the growing darkness of night, where everyone began to split off in their separate directions. While Jazz volunteered to walk Star home, Danny and Sam retired to the room that used to be Danny's, but which they now shared as husband and wife.

Danny sighed and plopped down on the side of their king sized bed while Sam walked to the fancy armoire sitting against the side of the purple-painted room. She sat down on the chair and pulled off her leather vest, throwing it to the floor near the door with one hand while the other plucked the ponytail out of her hair to let it fall around her shoulders in a bowl-like shape. She began to brush her hair while Danny fell back onto the bed with a plop.

"I just don't know how to feel about this." Danny rubbed his eyes with one hand. "I know I should be happy for her. I know I have to support her. But I just want everything to stay like it is. This past year has been perfect; I don't want it to end."

Sam replied, "I know what you mean, on both counts. But you know that trying to stop her would just be selfish. She's worked hard for this, and she deserves it."

"Yeah, yeah." Danny sat up again with one arm dangling from his knee. He watched Sam get dressed near the closet, where she was changing into her deep blue satin nightgown. "Knowing the right thing to do doesn't make it easy to do it."

"Truer words were never spoken." Sam closed the closet and turned to walk back to the bed, sitting beside him. He only now noticed that she'd removed her makeup, looking at him from a face not touched up like a painting, but like a normal girl with beautiful violet eyes that drew him in. "But I know that doing the right thing, however difficult it is, is something that you do best." She gave him a comforting smile and took his hand in hers. "You can handle this."

Danny took a deep breath. "Yeah, with you here to help."

"I'm not going anywhere." Staring into his eyes, Sam slid closer on the edge of the bed, her fingers twining themselves around his and holding tightly. "I'm going to be here for you, for the rest of our lives."

"Because some things never have to end…" Danny's lips curled into a smile for the first time since the ceremony as he leaned toward Sam. Moments later their lips met in a gentle kiss that enveloped them both, and even seemed to envelope the night around them.

* * *

Star walked down the sidewalk with her hands behind her back, humming a merry tune in time with Jazz, who was humming the same tune in harmony with her. It was something they enjoyed doing over the last year. Sometimes they even began to hum the same song at the same time. It had started as an exercise Jazz came up with to help Star feel in-tune with others, but soon it had grown into something else. What it was, Star couldn't say. But it always made her feel at peace.

Not now, though. The reality of Jazz's imminent departure was weighing heavy on her heart, dragging her to a place her mind hadn't gone since Paulina had vanished almost two years ago now. Jazz hadn't even left yet and she could feel the void opening in her heart, a void deeper than the one Paulina had left, deeper than the one she'd felt when they left home to move to Amity Park, leaving all of Star's friends behind. She felt terrible…

But she refused to let it show in her merry humming, which continued until they reached Star's home on the outer fringe of Amity Park.

"Thanks for coming with me." Jazz giggled. She hadn't stopped grinning since the ceremony, carrying her diploma around to flash at random and even show to any passerby who glanced in their direction. "This has been such a perfect day I don't want it to end. This sort of thing only comes once, y'know."

"Yeah, it sure does." Star forced a smile onto her lips. "I'm so happy for you, Jazz. You can do anything you want from here on out, become anything you want."

"True!" Jazz grinned. "But I think I'll stick to my first love, psychology. So many people in this world are just lost and need guidance. I want to be the one to pick up the pieces. If I don't, who will?"

"Well, I know you'll be great at that." Star winked. Jazz giggled again. "I know I have you to thank for having my sanity right now. Without you…"

"Oh stop, you've thanked me more than enough times. I'm just glad you're okay." Jazz smiled. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow. We're hitting the water park, right?"

"Y-yeah, that sounds good." Star forced another smile.

"Great. We'll meet outside the park at two P.M." Jazz waved and turned to skip down the sidewalk away from her. Star was gripped by a sudden urge to scream out to her, to call her back. But she bit her tongue, and watched Jazz walk into the night.

Silently Star turned to open her door and step into the small wooden shack her mother favored so much. The door closed behind her with a soft click and she turned her eyes up toward the back of the house. She thought to get to her room, but she didn't have time before the tears overtook her and she collapsed to her knees. Her eyes closed, but that did nothing to stop to stop the stream of tears that flowed down her cheeks from emotions that had been pent up all day.

Her eyes opened again and she looked up with a sniffle when she heard a pair of footsteps stomping across the wood toward her. She must have looked so pathetic, on her knees sobbing in the doorway. But her sister, Moon, didn't look smug as she leaned down to take the smaller sister in her arms, holding her close in a tight embrace.

"You need to open up, Star." Moon's voice was soft and soothing as her breath brushed against Star's cheek. "You need to open up completely."

"I… I'm gonna miss her…" Star sniffled into her shoulder. "She's the best friend I ever had."

"That's not what I meant," Moon told her. Star pulled back slightly to give her a quizzical look, but Moon just smiled. "Just try to relax, sis. Come on, maybe some cocoa and rest will do you some good." Moon moved away from her and turned to lead her into the kitchen.

For a moment Star stared after her, trying to figure out what she meant. But in a moment she shook off her confusion and rushed to join her as she wiped the tears from her eyes. She needed to open up completely? About what?

* * *

The next two weeks passed without incident. It was that precious summer time when nobody had to go to school, so the four of them spent a lot of time hanging out at the water park. Occasionally Paulina would join them, a fact that still made Sam a bit nervous, but she put up with for the sake of Star and Jazz, who enjoyed the extra company. Sam supposed their experiences with Paulina a year ago were long gone and should be forgotten, but it was difficult to forget the person who tried to kill you several times.

Time was growing short, so they spent as much time as possible with Jazz, whose upbeat attitude and optimistic nature were infectious. Still, Sam noticed a growing pall over their crowd, especially from Danny and Star, who by the end of the two weeks were nearly sleepwalking through their days. Jazz either didn't notice or pretended not to, instead opting to guide them by the hand through the water park, or the regular park, or wherever they decided to spend their days together. Sam didn't think it was possible that she didn't notice… she probably just didn't want to leave tears behind.

Now though, with one day left before she was scheduled to leave for college, it seemed like the dam that had held Danny back was about ready to burst, and there wasn't anything Sam could do to stop it. She woke up that morning to find herself trapped in Danny's arms, clutched against his chest like he was desperately trying to keep her from leaving. She did her best to comfort him, but throughout the morning it only got worse and soon they were to have their last trip with Jazz to the water park.

"Come on!" Jazz's yell drowned out the trickling streams and waterfalls of the various rides as she ran up to a small hill in the middle of the park. "We only have a few hours left! We need to hurry if we're going to hit every ride before tomorrow." Star and Danny both remained silent, staring at Jazz with quiet, mournful looks. Jazz turned to them and pumped her fist energetically in front of her. "Come on! In the spirit of adventure, who's with me?"

"Will you stop it!?" Star screamed suddenly. All eyes turned on her, even those of the random passersby on their way to the nearby Log Ride. Star's face turned red and she turned to run toward the bathrooms.

Jazz's smile faded for the first time in the last two weeks, fading into an unsure grimace as she watched her friend vanish into the bathroom. Her gaze swept then over Sam and Danny, who were watching her with expressions mixed between sadness and shock.

Jazz looked helplessly between them. "I just wanted to spend my last few days here having fun."

"We know, Jazz," Sam said with a comforting smile. "But that doesn't make things any easier for some of us…" She trailed off, then with a cough said, "I'll go talk to her." Sam rushed toward the bathroom, half because she wanted to make sure Star was okay, and half because she was feeling herself the pain of letting Jazz go. Sam and Jazz hadn't spent much time together, but Jazz was always supportive in her own way. She felt like a sister.

Sam opened the bathroom door and stepped inside, closing it behind her and making her way toward the back. The sound of choked sobs was echoing from one of the stalls. Though bending down, she couldn't see any feet touching the floor. Sam stood straight and walked along the row, running her fingers over the doors.

"Star? Are you alright?" Sam called softly.

"Why even bother asking?" Star's sniffle came from the back of the bathroom, where the door of the last stall was closed and locked. "Of course I'm not okay. She's leaving and she wants to act like nothing's wrong! Like we're not going to be apart! Like she doesn't even care!"

"Of course she cares, Star. I know she does." Sam approached the stall and pressed a hand against it, listening to the soft sobs of her friend beyond the door. "But this isn't goodbye forever. She's going to spend a few years in college, and then she'll be back. I'm sure she'll be back before you even realize she's gone."

"It already hurts! I… I…" Star's voice shuddered as another sob gripped her. Sam bit her lip, but didn't speak until Star calmed herself enough to continue. "I already miss her. She was the only person who made me feel… feel like I do."

"And… how do you feel, Star?" Sam suspected she might know the answer already.

"I don't even know," Star confessed in a whisper that barely carried through the door. "But I don't want her to leave. I want her to stay. I want her to help me like she has been."

"I don't want her to go either." Sam smiled slightly. "But… we don't need to cry. If we feel something, it's best to say it, y'know?" Star remained silent on the other side of the door. "So come on. You and me, we'll go tell her what we're feeling. We'll tell her that we don't want her to go, and we'll see what happens from there. Is that okay?"

"Y-yeah…" Star replied in a soft voice. Sam's lips curled into a smile when she heard the click of the stall lock being opened.

* * *

Jazz watched Sam vanish into the bathroom, biting her lip and hugging herself nervously. She'd never intended to hurt anyone, least of all Star. She thought the last two weeks were going pretty well, but it seemed she was the only one having a good time. Now she stood alone in the middle of the water park, face-to-face with Danny, whose face seemed no less tense than Star's had right before she stormed off. Was it really so hard on him as well?

"Danny." Jazz approached with one arm rubbing the other. "Is there something you have to say to me?"

"What is there to say?" Danny shrugged his shoulders and turned away from her, his arms folding across his bare chest. "That I'll miss you? That even though you can be a pain in the butt sometimes, I don't want to see you leave?"

Jazz couldn't help but smile. She walked up behind her bother and hugged him from behind, pulling him back against her. Only now did she realize how tall he was getting. The top of his head was several inches above hers. She was so used to having a little brother she never noticed that he wasn't so little anymore. This only made her smile wider. "Danny, I'll miss you too. I promise I'll keep in touch, though. I'll keep in touch with everyone back here in Amity Park."

"World famous scientists usually don't worry about the people in their hometown…" Danny replied softly.

"The smart ones know that it's important to remember your roots. And as a psychologist, I recognize the importance of familial bonds. More than that, I love you. I'm not going to leave you forever Danny, I'm just going to learn more, and then I'll be back here. Of course, by then you might be in college yourself."

"I don't know, college might not be for me." Danny shook his head. "With my powers I can do so much more. Like the Teen Titans. Seems like they save the world all the time."

"Do what you think is right, but don't neglect your responsibility to yourself." Jazz smiled. Danny looked back at her with a soft smile on his lips, letting the silence speak for itself.

Jazz's attention was drawn away from her little brother by the approach of Sam and Star, who both had solemn looked on their faces. Star's eyes were bloodshot from her tears, but she now carried herself with some sense of composure. Jazz couldn't help a pang of guilt in the pit of her stomach, though she knew it wasn't really her fault. Jazz had done all she could to help Star. Perhaps a little too much, she now realized. Star had come to depend on her, and now she was about to leave. She should have realized it would be harder on Star than anyone else.

Taking a deep breath and steeling herself for whatever would come, Jazz took the initiative and approached her friend. "Star? Is there something you'd like to say to me?"

"I…" Star stuttered for a moment, then looked away as her hands clasped in front of her. "I don't want you to go."

"I know." Jazz's smile met her friend's shamed glance. "I'll miss you too." Jazz stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend, pulling her into a tight hug. She felt Star's arms instantly wrap around her waist while her face buried itself against her shoulder. "But this isn't goodbye. It never has to be goodbye, as long as we're alive. We can keep in touch, and in a few years I'll come back. It doesn't change anything."

"A lot can change in four years." Star's voice was muffled against the flesh of Jazz's shoulder.

"But it won't, Star. Trust me." Jazz placed her hands on Star's shoulders and gently pushed her back to arm's length to look at her eyes. Star still refused to meet her gaze, though. "Friends never have to drift apart, even if they move miles away from one another." She took a deep breath and looked around at Sam and Danny, who were watching them with somewhat uncomfortable looks. "Do you want me to walk you home?"

Star's slight nod was the only answer she gave, gazing at the floor as if afraid to look up. Jazz nodded. "Okay. Danny, Sam, I'll catch up with you two at home."

"Yeah, we'll see you there." Danny nodded. Jazz took Star's shoulders to guide her toward the changing rooms on the front side of the water park.

They found their things, dried and dressed in separate rooms, and were soon walking down the sidewalk toward the modest wooden house on the edge of town where Star lived with their packs slung over their shoulders, which contained their bathing suits and towels. Neither of them spoke on the way, and Jazz didn't like the silence one bit. This was really bothering Star, but what bothered Jazz most of all was that she had no idea what to do about it. More than anything else in the world, Jazz hated being helpless.

They approached Star's door in silence and they turned to face one another, at the same time facing the uncomfortable aura that had filled the air during the walk home. Jazz didn't know what to say, and it was obvious Star didn't know either. She'd said what she planned to say, but it didn't seem to be enough. Now she was at a loss. She couldn't stay here in Amity Park, not if she wanted to continue her education and get her degree.

"Jazz." Star stepped forward and looked up at Jazz's eyes at last, though her hands remained tensely knotted together in front of her. "I feel… I feel like if you leave, something will be going with you." She gulped, but her eyes never left Jazz's. "I feel like you hold the best part of me in your hands, and without you… without you I can't be the girl you've tried so hard over this last year to help me become. I feel like I need you, Jazz."

Jazz cocked her head to the side with a gentle, but studying gaze. She could see the sincerity in Star's eyes, locked now with her own in a deep, desperate stare. Her words were those of a precious friend, but her voice, and her eyes, carried something deeper. Something that genuinely surprised Jazz when she realized what it could be. She was careful not to let her surprise show, instead reaching one hand forward to place it on Star's shoulder.

"Since you moved to Amity Park, you've relied on others." Jazz was careful not to break their eye contact. "But what you've become has nothing to do with me. What you've become, the sweet, kind, and genuine girl I love to hang around with, is from inside of you. Nobody can ever take that away from you, not even me. You are who you choose to be, regardless of what I do. I've tried to help you… but if this girl wasn't inside you all along, I never would've been able to bring her out."

"I understand." Star nodded. "I'm just so confused… maybe I should try to get some sleep."

"If you think that's best." Jazz pulled her hand back. "I hope you'll come see me off at the airport tomorrow. I know it'll be hard saying goodbye, but I want your support. To be honest, this is sort of scary for me too. Leaving home for the first time…"

"That's always scary… yeah, I'll be there. You couldn't keep me away if you tried." Star smiled warmly. They shared a gentle hug and Star waved her way inside the house while Jazz turned to walk down the sidewalk toward FentonWorks again.

Was she imagining what she thought she saw in Star's eyes? It was possible, she supposed. Even if she wasn't, it only proved how strong Star's attachment to her was, and how good it would be for her if Jazz left. She needed to learn to operate by herself for a while. It would be a learning experience, however hard it would be. Still, these facts didn't make her heart any less heavy as she took the steps outside of her home one at a time, and went inside.

* * *

This was it. The day Star had been dreading for the past two weeks. The day Jazz would be leaving Amity Park to continue her education at Harvard University. Often Jazz had spoken of this day, and Star had always nodded and smiled, trying to share in her excitement. But it never took long for her thoughts to turn to ones of being alone.

She considered briefly that she could turn around before she reached the airport terminal Jazz was scheduled to leave from, but she couldn't make herself do it. Instead she marched on, her feet moving of their own accord as she walked the last few yards through the airport into the terminal where the Fentons were gathered near the gate. Jazz was hugging her mother, while her younger sibling couple watched with wet eyes and her father bawled like a baby against the glass window, through which her plane was plainly visible.

Star walked up behind Sam and Danny, who looked back in surprise to see her, then smiled and waved for her to join the small group. Star forced a strained smile onto her lips as she joined them, watching mother and daughter pat each other on the back.

"Now remember sweetie, if anyone offers you 'fun candy' or whatever it is kids call it these days, you say no," Maddie said.

"I'll remember that, mom." Jazz smiled and patted her mother's back once more before pulling back and turning to look at the others. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise when she saw Star, who smiled a nervous smile and waved a nervous wave. Jazz smiled back and approached the three of them.

First she looked down at Sam and Danny, who were standing side-by-side with their hands clasped between them. "You know, when Sam first told me you were gonna get married, I had my doubts. How long can a couple of teenagers make a marriage last? Now look at you, over a year later and you've held it together all this time." Jazz smiled and wrapped an arm around each of them, pulling them into a tight hug. "I have never been happier to be proven wrong."

Sam coughed. "Um… thanks?"

"Glad to know you have so much faith in us, Jazz." Danny quipped from the other side.

Jazz pulled back with a blush on her cheeks. "I didn't mean it like that." Danny and Sam waved off the comment with smiles, then moved aside when Jazz raised her eyes to Star.

Star's heart began to pound, and she swore she could feel the tears already beating at the back of her eyes desperate to escape. But she held them back as Jazz walked up in front of her with a gentle smile.

"Star. Thanks for coming," Jazz said.

"I told you I'd be here." Star sniffled and looked down, then mentally chided herself and forced herself to meet Jazz's gaze again. "Guess this is… goodbye." Her breath caught in her throat, and she gulped in a vain attempt to unclog her windpipe. She felt terrible, something Jazz clearly noticed, though she said nothing about it.

"Goodbye for now." Jazz stepped forward and wrapped her in a tight hug again. "Take care of yourself, Star. You're strong enough to do that for me, I know you are."

"Y…" Star trailed off for a moment. "I'll be okay…" Star forced a smile onto her lips when Jazz pulled back, trying to show her that she would be okay.

"I know you will." Jazz wiped one of her tears off of her cheek with her thumb, then knelt down to pick her bag up off of the floor. "You have my e-mail address. I know it won't be the same, but we don't have to lose touch."

"Yeah." Star smiled through the stream of tears she could no longer contain. "I'll write…" She could say anything else, but Jazz clearly didn't expect her to. Instead Jazz gave her one last smile and turned to look at her family again, looking back and forth between Sam and Danny, and Jack and Maddie.

"Goodbye." Jazz hugged each of them once more in turn, then pulled away and backed toward the terminal, hefting her bag over her shoulder. Star watched her go, but Jazz didn't turn back again. Her steady march toward the plane continued unabated until she vanished from sight. The Fentons stopped waving and turned to watch the plane through the window, watching the barely visible people step onto it.

Star approached the window, her mind racing. She wanted to tell Jazz something before she left… and now the chance was gone. She didn't even know what she wanted to say, her mind was a jumble of thoughts and feelings, each of which seemed to conflict with the others. She didn't want Jazz to go, because she was her best friend… no, it was something else. Something digging at the back of her mind, making her heart burst until she could barely take it anymore.

Just as she thought she was beginning to go insane, a thought occurred to her. And a memory from over a year ago, when Danny had been trapped in a girl's body…

_Slowly, Star slipped across the floor until she was beside Jazz to whisper. "When did Sam become Gay?"_

_Sam turned to look back at her, amused rather than angry. "When I remembered the person who made me __smile__ when I didn't think I ever would again."_

"Didn't think I ever would again…" Star mumbled to herself, her mind finally clearing. All at once, the confusion dissipated, leaving an empty, throbbing hole in her heart as she watched the plane taxi out onto the runway. She was gripped by the sudden urge to run after it, to scream her new revelation to the world and call Jazz back to her. But she didn't. Instead she clasped her hands behind her back and watched it pick up speed down the runway until it left the ground to carry Jazz out of her life… for now.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

"I am not your friend." Mrs. Moorehead walked around her large desk to stands in front of Jazz's glaring down at her with a cold glare. "What are you crying for? That's a completely inappropriate psychological response to the promise of becoming better than you are. The only people who cry randomly at everything they see are the weak and pathetic masses who don't know how to process new information properly. Are you one of those, Jasmine?"

"N-no…" Jazz squeaked softly.

"Then stop crying! It bugs me." Professor Moorehead narrowed her eyes dangerously, peering down at Jazz with a venomous glare. Jazz sniffled and tried to contain herself, staring up into the Professor's eyes until finally she stood up straight and clasped her hands behind her back. "All of you take this first lesson to heart. The most important psychological principal in this classroom is discipline! If you don't have it, you'd might as well leave right now."

"Now, if nobody else feels like losing their mind for no apparent reason, we can begin our real lessons." Professor Moorehead glared down at Jazz a moment later, then turned to walk back to the blackboard.

Jazz tried to wipe her eyes clear, but a wad of paper bounced off of her head to the table in front of her. Curiously, Jazz spread it out to read what it said. 'Hahahahahaha.' Jazz looked to the side to see Mandy miming uproarious laughter and leaning back against the wall. Jazz knew it was a childish gesture, but she couldn't stop her cheeks from growing hot in embarrassment. This was worse than being in fourth grade…

And worst of all, when she finally pulled her attention to the teacher's lessons, she could barely understand what she was talking about. Principals of this and theories of that… stages of something else and properties of that except if this situation was applied. Her mind and pencil raced to keep up with it all, but they were nothing more than words. The concept secluded her, and that nearly sent her into a panic. What if Professor Moorehead was right? Was this the proof? Was she doomed to fail here, unable to advance any further?

Two hours later, Jazz found herself curled up at the head of her bed in her dorm room, shivering with her arms wrapped around her folded knees. "It doesn't make sense. This is supposed to be a higher learning institution. With responsible teachers whose passion is teaching, and dedicated students whose passion is learning. It's not supposed to be like High School. But no… it's worse! I can't handle this! I can't do it! I'm in over my head! I'm in over my AAAHHH!" Jazz shrieked in surprise when the door opened.

Episode 21: Run, Don't Walk, Toward the Future


	2. Run, Don't Walk, Toward the Future

(Notes:

-"El Goonish Shive" is owned by Dan Shive.

-"Dexter's Laboratory" is owned by Cartoon Network.

-"The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" is owned by Cartoon Network.

-"Totally Spies" is owned by Marathon.)

Episode 21: Run, Don't Walk, Toward the Future

A warm summer wind blew through the grass outside the awe-inspiringly massive structure that she'd been shooting for for so long. The sight of its old but well-kept walls and the sight of the massive flagpole out front, upon which the American flag was weaving in the breeze, nearly brought a tear to her eye. After twelve long years of struggle, she'd finally made it here. She'd found the keys she would need to unlock her future as a truly respected psychologist.

"Yeeeeee!"Jazz Fenton squealed in excitement and did a little dance on the front sidewalk, then cleared her throat and looked around to make sure nobody had noticed. The courtyard was mostly full of students busy hustling back and forth between the dorms and the main building, hefting stacks of books in their arms. So she hefted her large duffle-bags up to her shoulders with a grunt and turned to make her way into the dormitories. Her classes weren't scheduled to begin until tomorrow, so she could take a day to settle in.

One of the bags plopped to the floor so she could dig around in her pocket for the small piece of paper on which she'd written her dorm room number. 124, which would be on the second story according to a hastily scrawled note on the side of the sheet. With both bags in tow again she wandered around until she found a staircase and went up to the second floor, then stopped to look around. It was amazing how similar all these rooms looked. It was sort of disorienting.

Wandering through the hallway with her bags dragging behind her, she stared up at the line of gold plates above each door with room numbers on them. She'd just passed number 100 when she felt something ram into her shoulder, knocking her off-balance into the wall.

"Oowww!" Jazz dropped her bags to the floor and rubbed her shoulder where it connected with the wall.

"Hey! Watch it!" A grating, high-pitched voice came from the face of a raven-haired girl with deep, violet eyes, a nasty sneer and a beauty-mark on her cheek. "Don't you know how to watch where you're going? I'm walking here! And I'm wearing heels! You're lucky I didn't fall down or I would so sue you!"

"Sorry, it was an accident." Jazz slid up the wall to her feet. "I'm new here, still trying to find my room."

"Do I care? I didn't ask for your life story, just stay out of my way." The girl pushed her roughly against the wall once more with the palm of her hand, then turned to stomp away down the hall with an irritable huff.

"Jeeze." Jazz pushed herself off of the wall, glaring after the girl. "What's gotten into her?"

"Money." Jazz whirled as another girl came down the hall, carrying a thick travelling suitcase at her side. She was a tall, beautiful girl with a well-chiseled body with curves to spare and powerful-looking muscles hidden underneath her revealing, yet simultaneously modest clothes. A pair of sparkling green eyes were framed by a pale face and a waterfall of fiery red hair. "Only reason she's here. I know her from High School, she was a pain in the butt then, too."

"Good to know it's not something I did, I guess." Jazz turned to the girl with a smile and held out her hand. "I'm Jasmine Fenton. My friends call me Jazz."

"Oh, I like it!" The girl grinned back and took her hand in a firm handshake. "I'm Samantha Simpson. Friends like to call me Sam." She lowered her hand to her side again. "I'm actually new here too, so maybe we can help each other out. What room are you looking for?"

Jazz looked down at her sheet again. "Uh, 124."

"Really? Me too! We're roomies!" Samantha tossed an arm around Jazz's shoulder with a broad grin. "Well, come on. We should go settle in!"

"Great!" Jazz smiled and bent down to heft her bags once again before joining her new friend on their trek down the hallway. "So who was that girl?"

"That was Mandy. Has money where her brain should be." Samantha scoffed and shook her head. "She's always been angry and over competitive. Just ignore her." Jazz nodded and they walked on in silence until they reached a door with the number '124' engraved in a gold plaque above the doorframe. "Here we are." Samantha pushed the door open and stepped inside, letting out a soft whistle. Jazz stepped in and blinked when she realized how massive the room was. It contained the thickest carpet she'd ever seen and the beds on either side of the room were queen sized.

"No wonder a Harvard education is so expensive." Samantha grinned and approached the bed on the left and hefted her suitcase up onto it.

"Wow. This is bigger than my room back home." Jazz looked around the room in awe and approached the bed on the right, dropping her bags beside it. She gasped when she saw a massive flatscreen TV set against the wall opposite perfectly between the two beds. "It even has its own TV!" She snatched the remote off of the nightstand by her bed and flipped it on, grinning when she saw the logo in the corner. "With cable and movie channels!"

Samantha laughed. "Awesome! Sure beats the heck out of Yale. All they have are radios." Jazz laughed and started flipping through channels, eventually stopping on VH1 to let the music play while they unpacked their things into the ornate wooden dressers at the foot of each bed.

"And tomorrow, the real fun begins." Jazz grinned. She could hardly wait. This was looking like the best time of her life. A comfortable room, a nice roommate, and the best education she could possibly get. Nothing could ruin this time in her life.

* * *

The next day her heart was racing as she walked through the hallways of Harvard University, carrying her thick stack of science books in both arms. It was so tall she had to lean to the side to see around them, which she thought was a bit excessive for one semester of classes. But it only made her more eager to see what she would learn in this new world of learning, especially in Science class, which was her first class of the day.

She walked into the large, marble-white room and gazed around with eager curiosity. There were long desks set up across the room with pieces of scientific equipment spread out at various point, including things like needles and microscopes. She noticed immediately that every piece of equipment had two seats beside it, which likely meant that they would be paired up. That was okay with her, she enjoyed meeting new people.

So she took one of the seats in the front row and hefted her stack of books onto the table in front of her, sitting to wait for someone to approach. There were many students piling in, until nearly the entire room was packed. One of the last students to take a seat with a pretty girl with chin-length purple hair and soft, milky white skin. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of thick glasses that make it impossible to see them. She sat down in the seat beside Jazz and, with a sigh, plopped her books on the table in front of her.

"Hello!" Jazz smiled happily. "I'm Jasmine. My friends call me Jazz. And you are?"

"Tedd. The girl said in a surprisingly deep voice as she shook his hand. In fact, Jazz took another moment to look at him and… "Yes, I'm a boy, if that's what you were wondering." Tedd grumbled bitterly.

"Oh! Of course! I…" Jazz blushed and chuckled in embarrassment. "I didn't…"

"Forget it." The beautiful boy grinned and adjusted his glasses. "I'm just happy to be here. I've heard this place has the best science class in the world."

"It should. This is supposed to be the best school in the world." Jazz nodded.

"Good morning class! Good morning!" The murmuring of the students went silent as the sound of a high, but spirited voice from the front of the classroom. A squat little man barely as tall as the bottom of the blackboard behind him was striding in through the open door, kicking it closed behind him. A thick white lab coat brushed across the ground as he walked, while a pair of purple gloves covered his hands. A thick mop of bushy red hair sat atop a thick, pudgy face while a thick pair of glasses perched on a sharp nose, making him look like a rather pudgy owl.

"Everyone smile! Today is a great day… for science!" The teacher turned to the blackboard, and everyone gasped in surprise when the soles of his shoes began to extend, raising him up to a level where he could take a piece of chalk and write his name on the board. "I am Professor Dexter. But you can all just call me Dexter. And today you embark on an exciting new journey into the world! A scientist looks at things not as what they are, but as what they have been, and what they may yet become."

Jazz and Tedd exchanged a curious glance, then turned back to the squat little professor. Dexter turned back toward the class as his shoes lowered him down to the floor again. "As such, I recommend we start from the beginning. Going back to where something was created. We do this through many processes, but for our purpose, we're going to be using Reverse Engineering. Reverse Engineering is where you deconstruct an object, going backward through the creation process and then, by reversing the backward process, creating the object anew."

Jazz hastily dug out her notebook, having not expected the teacher to launch straight into a lecture. She quickly began to scribble down notes as the teacher continued to talk. "Now I know it's abrupt, but I want a demonstration." The professor reached into the deep pockets of his white lab coat and dug out a collection of small orbs. Each was glowing with an eerie green light that shone through cracks in its surface. "These are miniature Nuclear Fusion Reactors I created last weekend while I was bored. Through Reverse Engineering, I want you to tell me how the orbs were created."

Jazz raised her hand. "Um, Professor Dexter? Isn't Nuclear energy dangerous?"

"Only if you breach the nuclear core. So don't do that." Dexter approached and placed one of the balls in front of her. "You will all be working in teams, so please everyone try your best not to disappoint your partners." He moved along to pass out more of the creepy glowing balls.

Curiously Jazz raised a finger to poke the object, then squeaked and shielded herself when the green glow expanded and a whirring noise cut the air. In a moment, though, it settled back down again.

Tedd grinned like a kid in a candy store. "Best. Science class. Ever."

* * *

After the class let out, Jazz was feeling a bit disheartened. After the first class of the first day she had to read from three different books, and really didn't have a clue what the teacher was talking about half the time. If it wasn't for Tedd being there, she would've been completely lost. He seemed to have a sharp mind for this sort of thing, and was able to not only explain it to her, but complete their project without irradiating the school.

"You'll get the hang of it." Tedd smiled encouragingly as they walked out of the classroom shoulder-to-shoulder. "But hey, if you want I could help you study some time. I really don't know anyone on campus either."

"Um…" Jazz hesitated a moment.

"Hey, relax, I'm not coming onto you. I have a girlfriend back home." Tedd assured her. "You're not really my type anyway."

Jazz raised a curious eyebrow. "Really? What is your type?"

"That's not really important here." Tedd grumbled something under his breath, then gave her a charming smile and opened his arm that wasn't straining to hold his overstuffed book bag at his side. "But come on. What do you say? Study date tonight? With only studying?"

Jazz tossed her head to the side to wipe some stray hairs out of her face. "Umm… yeah, actually. I could definitely use it."

"Great." Tedd smiled and grabbed his bag with his second arm as the first one seemed on the verge of failing. "Downstairs dorm room 67. Six o'clock good for you?"

"That's fine. I'll see you then." Jazz smiled and waved as they parted ways, and she rushed back to her dorm to fetch her books for the next class.

Thirty minutes after Science Class was the course she came here for. Psychology. But there was less spring in her step than there was before. That science class had really thrown her through a loop. She'd expected to perform as well here as she did back at Casper High, but the stuff Professor Dexter talked about seemed way above and beyond anything she'd encountered before. Dismantling a nuclear reactor on her first day? What would they be doing by the end? What if the rest of her courses were that difficult? Maybe she couldn't handle it…

With these thoughts hanging in her mind, she entered the next classroom, which was full of standard classroom desks, where many students were sitting and waiting for the teacher to arrive. Jazz decided to take a seat in the front row again, it was easier to take notes from there. She tried to keep to herself, but her eyes went wide when she saw the raven-haired girl from the hallway sitting in the chair against the opposite wall. Mandy, Samantha had said her name was.

"Good morning, class." The woman nodded at the assembled students. She was a tall woman with short blonde hair, with striking features and a sharp fire in her eyes that refused to be messed with. Despite her hard demeanor, she wore a flowery pink dress that flowed down her long legs ending in a pair of dainty black shoes. "My name is Mandy Moorehead. My friends call me Mandy… but you are NOT my friends." She slammed one fist down on the table, making Jazz and half the class jump. "As such, you will address me as Professor Moorehead, which befits my superior status." She turned back to the chalkboard to write her name down.

Jazz gulped nervously and watched as Mandy turned back to them with her hands clasped behind her back. "Humans are simple creatures at heart. You are here to learn how their simple minds work, and how to manipulate them. The first thing you should know is that all humans, everybody you've ever met, is a stupid animal with their foremost thoughts being uncontrollably pathetic animal instincts. You are all stupid too, but maybe some time in this class some of you will prove able to get two of your brain cells to collide long enough to retain some of this information."

Jazz couldn't help a sniffle, though she quickly tried to hide it behind her hand. Professor Moorehead's sharp blue eyes turned to her behind the rims of her sharply pointed glasses, as if ready to pierce her like a spear. "You. What's your name?"

"Um… J-Jasmine. My friends call me-"

"I am not your friend." Mrs. Moorehead walked around her large desk to stands in front of Jazz's glaring down at her with a cold glare. "What are you crying for? That's a completely inappropriate psychological response to the promise of becoming better than you are. The only people who cry randomly at everything they see are the weak and pathetic masses who don't know how to process new information properly. Are you one of those, Jasmine?"

"N-no…" Jazz squeaked softly.

"Then stop crying! It bugs me." Professor Moorehead narrowed her eyes dangerously, peering down at Jazz with a venomous glare. Jazz sniffled and tried to contain herself, staring up into the Professor's eyes until finally she stood up straight and clasped her hands behind her back. "All of you take this first lesson to heart. The most important psychological principal in this classroom is discipline! If you don't have it, you'd might as well leave right now."

"Now, if nobody else feels like losing their mind for no apparent reason, we can begin our real lessons." Professor Moorehead glared down at Jazz a moment later, then turned to walk back to the blackboard.

Jazz tried to wipe her eyes clear, but a wad of paper bounced off of her head to the table in front of her. Curiously, Jazz spread it out to read what it said. 'Hahahahahaha.' Jazz looked to the side to see Mandy miming uproarious laughter and leaning back against the wall. Jazz knew it was a childish gesture, but she couldn't stop her cheeks from growing hot in embarrassment. This was worse than being in fourth grade…

And worst of all, when she finally pulled her attention to the teacher's lessons, she could barely understand what she was talking about. Principals of this and theories of that… stages of something else and properties of that except if this situation was applied. Her mind and pencil raced to keep up with it all, but they were nothing more than words. The concepts eluded her, and that nearly sent her into a panic. What if Professor Moorehead was right? Was this the proof? Was she doomed to fail here, unable to advance any further?

Two hours later, Jazz found herself curled up at the head of her bed in her dorm room, shivering with her arms wrapped around her folded knees. "It doesn't make sense. This is supposed to be a higher learning institution. With responsible teachers whose passion is teaching, and dedicated students whose passion is learning. It's not supposed to be like High School. But no… it's worse! I can't handle this! I can't do it! I'm in over my head! I'm in over my AAAHHH!" Jazz shrieked in surprise when the door opened.

Samantha Simpson dropped her books to the floor with a clatter and raised her hands. "Whoa! Chill! It's just me!"

"Oh…" Jazz blushed deeply. "Sorry! I just…" She rubbed her forehead and tried to steady her breathing. "I haven't been having a very good day today."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. These classes are tough, and it's just the first day." Samantha knelt down to pluck her books off the floor and set them on the nightstand. "I still have one more to go, just have a few minutes of rest first, which I can definitely use…" Samantha furrowed her brow worriedly. "You look a little pale. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Honestly? No…" Jazz shook her head. "I'm having serious second thoughts about this. I feel completely unprepared. Like a… a stupid, ignorant, small-town hick trying to make it in the real world now…"

"Oh, come on. You're being way too hard on yourself. Anyone who was 'ignorant' would never be accepted here without dropping boatloads of money in the pockets of important people. And you don't seem like the type to do that, so you must have earned your way here." Samantha smiled comfortingly and patted her shoulder. "Just give it some time, you'll get the hang of life here. We can work on that together."

"Yeah, give it time… time?" Jazz looked up at the clock hanging over the door. "Crap! The time! It's 6:30! I'm late for my study date!" Jazz leapt from the bed to hunt for her science books.

"A date? After one day? Clearly this day hasn't been a total waste." Samantha grinned.

"Not that kind of date! He's just helping me study!" Jazz swept her books into her arms and cast about for her notebook.

"Yeah, uh-huh. Well, I hope you find the evening very educational and relaxing." Samantha winked.

"It's not… oh whatever! I'll be back later! Buh-bye!" With her things clutched in her arms, Jazz raced out of the dorm room and ran for the stairs leading down to ground level. She ran around for twenty minutes downstairs before something important occurred to her. "Oh man… what was his dorm room number!? I can't remember… come on Jazz! Think!" She stopped and started banging her head on the wall, trying to jar her memory. She stopped after a moment with her forehead pressed against it. "Owwie…"

Jazz looked over when she heard a door beside her open and a male head with silky pale skin and purple hair poked out into the hallway. "Um… what's going on out here?"

"Trying to knock myself out so I don't have to feel so stupid." Jazz mumbled under her breath.

"Well, why don't you come in instead? Before you hurt yourself." Tedd approached and took her shoulders, turning to guide her into the dorm room. Jazz didn't resist, her shoulders slumping under the weight of his hands. He closed the door behind them and turned to her with a kind smile. "Can I get you something to drink?" Jazz mumbled 'thank you' under her breath and let him push her down on the edge of one of the twin sized beds.

Her eyes finally lifted from the floor to watch him open a small mini-fridge at the foot of the bed and pull out a can of soda pop, which he held out to her. Letting the books rest on the bed beside her, Jazz took it and popped it open so she could take a small swig. Tedd plopped himself down on the bed opposite her with his own soda, popping it open and taking a swig before speaking again.

"So what's got you banging your head against the wall?" He asked with a slight, mirthful smile. "I know college is tough, but it's only been a day, right?"

"Yeah, but it's just so weird." Jazz looked away again, seeing several posters around the room of Japanese anime girls with cat ears and tails wearing bikinis. Tedd paid them no mind though, just watching her with a look of concern behind his thick glasses. "I was the best at everything back home. It was like I knew everything. And then I come here… and it's like being right back in High School again. But this time I don't know anything, I don't have any friends, and I even have a petty rival already." She sighed and hung her head. "I'm seriously thinking about just going home."

"Hey, don't do that." Tedd raised his finger like a professor giving a lecture. "You managed to fight your way here through High School, so you earned your place here. Just because you stumble a little at first doesn't mean you should give up, everything takes time to get used to."

Jazz shook her head. "This is all way beyond me. I don't know if I can handle it."

Tedd's reply was simple. "Then find out." Jazz looked up to find him giving her a comforting smile from his bed. "What would be the point in going home now? You walk away and never know what would happen. Why not just stay? At worst, you fail and go home anyway. But at least you'll know whether you would've failed or not."

Jazz nodded. "Yeah… that makes sense. You're a wise man, Tedd."

Tedd laughed. "I've been called lots of things. Wise was never one of them."

"Kind, then." Jazz smiled. "Thank you."

"Bah, hehehe." A blush crept across Tedd's silky cheeks as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I've got an idea, why don't we save the science books for tomorrow and grab a burger tonight? My treat."

"That sounds wonderful right now." Jazz smiled again and stood up with him.

Her books were left lying on the bed, forgotten with the pressures of the day as Tedd led her out into the hallway and away from the dorms. It felt so good walking in the brisk evening air, she'd spent the whole day inside furiously worrying without giving herself a moment to stop and stand back to take in the world around her. The moon and the stars were so beautiful her fears and insecurities just floated away on the empty darkness above them.

Much to her chagrin, her stomach began to growl the moment they entered the food court that sat across the courtyard, reminding her that she hadn't even eaten any breakfast that morning. In her eagerness to begin her lessons and see what was in store for her, the practical realities of life seem to have slipped her mind. Tedd didn't comment, though she saw him smirking at the sound of her rumbling stomach. Let him, she thought. She deserved it for letting herself get so worked up.

A tasteless meal of overcooked burgers and mushy French Fries filled the gaping hole in her stomach while the normal, relaxed atmosphere in the food court helped her relax to think more logically about the days' events. That Mandy girl was likely to make a pain of herself, but there were people like that in every walk of life, she supposed. From elementary school to college and beyond, it shouldn't be that surprising. On the other hand, there were also guys like Tedd.

A smile crept across her lips, but she said nothing on the way back to the dorm rooms. They'd chatted with a companionable air once or twice, but little needed to be said at the moment. She felt more relaxed now. Perhaps because she'd finally eaten something, perhaps because she didn't feel so confined in the school. Whatever the reason, she was able to let her muscles relax with her head held high for the first time all day.

They reached Tedd's dorm room shortly and went inside. It was still empty, without a roommate in sight. "My last roommate left kind of abruptly, and they haven't found me a new one yet." Tedd explained with a sheepish grin. He scooped her books off the bed and carried them back to hold them out to her. "Here you go. You might want to keep these handy."

"Thanks… but, if you're not going to bed soon, I feel ready to see if I can figure this stuff out." Jazz smiled.

"Oh? Well, sure. Most of my classes are weekend classes, so I can stay up a while tonight." Tedd swept his arm back into his room with a flourish to invite her in. "Come on in… and don't mind the posters."

"Nah. They're kinda cute." Jazz chuckled as she walked past him inside. Tedd stared at her a moment, then gulped and closed the door behind her.

They sat for the next several hours, long after Jazz knew she should have gone to bed. The atmosphere was comfortable, and to her amazement, she was actually able to figure out the principals behind the words in the book now that she was focusing on it rather than the difficulty of the classes in general. Tedd was a soft-spoken and patient teacher, explaining anything she asked about without a trace of irritation or frustration. He even admitted when he didn't know the answer, replying "I guess we'll have to learn that one together."

After what seemed like a couple of minutes, Jazz glanced up at the alarm clock on the nightstand beside Tedd's bed to see that it was almost 2:30 AM. "Oh geeze, I have got to get to bed. I have Algebra in the morning." Jazz blushed.

Tedd grimaced. "Ooh. You want to be rested for that one, too."

"You as good with numbers are you are with scientific principals?"

"The two are closely related." Tedd grinned. "And yeah, if you need any help with that, feel free to give me a call."

"I'll do that. And if you need any help, or, y'know, some company, give me a ring. I'm in room number 124 on the second floor of this building." Jazz gathered up her books and stood clutching them to her chest.

"Which reminds me!" Tedd rushed to his nightstand and took out a piece of paper, scrawling something on it and slipping it between the pages of her science book. "My room number. And my cell-phone number, if I'm not here."

"Heehee. Thanks." Jazz blushed with a nervous grin on her lips. Tedd opened the door for her, since her arms were full, and she stepped out into the hallway. "And thanks again for helping me. I feel like I understand the principals of what the professor was talking about much better now."

"My pleasure." Tedd smiled. "Now go get some sleep. You want to be awake for Algebra."

"Yeah, you're right. Goodnight." Jazz waved and turned to head down the hallway, clutching her books close to her chest as she walked.

She wasn't entirely sure how or why, but she felt more confident than she had all day. Like everything really would be okay if she just focused on her work and tried harder. After all, what did she have to lose by trying? Nothing, except a little time. And by leaving, she would lose those new friends she'd made in her short time here. Along with any she would make in the future. She had new friends, new lessons, and a future that looked brighter all the time. What more could she possibly ask for?

SHORT STORY: Dream A Little Dream

Sam could hear a soft voice crying nearby, its voice breaking into gentle sobs that echoes through the empty house. Her fingers trailed across the smooth hallways until she reached the next room. Her hand lingered on the doorframe as she swung forward, looking into the empty room .The sobs grew in pitch through the dark room, inside which a single light was shining. They shone down on a blonde girl, who knelt sobbing in the middle of the room.

"She's gone…" Star sobbed and sniffled in the middle of the room. "My love is gone…"

"Star…" Sam walked inside, walking out of the light of the hallway into the darkness of the room. The door swung closed behind her, locking them both in the eerie darkness as she approached her blonde friend. "Please don't cry. You don't need to." Sam approached the light and knelt down beside her good friend, wrapping her arms around her torso.

Star's wide, moist eyes looked up into Sam's, her body shuddering in Sam's arms as she kept moving closer, and closer, until Sam's arms were holding her in a tight embrace, shielding her from the harsh truths of the world. Star's lips opened as Sam moved closer, and her lips pressed firmly against those of her troubled friend.

"GYAH!" Sam shot up in bed in the middle of the night, flinging the blanket off of her and panting in surprise.

"What!? What!?" Danny shot up in bed beside her. "Did someone sneak in!? What is it!?"

"No. nothing. Just kind of a… weird dream." Sam panted and raised one hand to her sweat-drenched head. What was it she was feeling? Fear or arousal?

"Tell me about it. Maybe it'll help." She felt one of Danny's strong, but bony hands resting on her bare shoulder.

"Well… I walked into this dark room, and Star was sitting there crying. So I walked up to her and we… um…" Sam blushed. "We kissed."

Danny blinked, his eyes glazing over. "O… oh…"

"I know. It's weird." Sam rubbed her head. "Why would I dream about another girl? Do you think maybe, on some level, maybe I am a lesbian after all?"

Danny laughed. "No way. Jazz told me once it's normal to have dreams like that. Everyone does it at one time or another."

"Really?" Sam smiled. "But I did spend a lot of time with you when you were a girl… what if…"

"Could you seriously imagine being with Star? Or any other girl in the real world?" Danny slipped one arm around her shoulders to hold her close in his comforting embrace. "Because if you could, I wouldn't object."

Sam laughed and elbowed him playfully in the stomach. "I guess you're right. I can't imagine myself with any other girls. But then, I can't imagine myself with anyone but you." She smiled and leaned against him, catching his lips in a swift kiss.

"Mmm. Mushy." Danny smiled against her lips.

"I still blame you." Sam smiled back as they separated to their separate sides of the bed. As they settled back down to rest, something occurred to Sam. "So, everyone has those kinds of dreams huh? Have you ever dreamed about being with another boy?"

"Well…" Danny hesitated a moment. "One or twice, maybe."

"Oooo." Sam grinned. "Who was it?"

"Is that really important?" Danny blushed deeply.

Sam grinned evilly. "Come ooonnnn! You know about my dream with Star. It was Dash, wasn't it?"

"Ewe! Double no!" Danny shuddered. "That's just disgusting, Sam. You're gonna give me nightmares!" Sam laughed. "Let's just try to get some sleep. And let the dreams stay where they belong. In our heads."

Sam nestled down into the blanket. "Yeah. Goodnight, Danny. I love you."

"I love you too." Danny scooted closer in the bed to wrap an arm around her waist, holding her close against his bare chest while they both closed their eyes and tried to drift off back into dreamland.

* * *

Danny strode down the hallway with Sam by his side, holding her hand with a broad smile on his face. Sam smiled with him, unable to contain herself. It was another perfect day, married to the boy she loved with her biggest worry being school grades and homework. Even the air seemed pleasantly warm, as if its entire purpose was to make the day seem a little brighter.

"Yo, Fenton!" Dash's shout came from behind them, making them whirl suddenly in surprise. "Where's that book report you promised me!?" One beefy hand grabbed the front of Danny's shirt and shoved him up against a nearby locker to pin him there.

Danny yelped in surprise. "Gah! Dash! I'm so sorry, I-"

"Save it, Fenton." Dash's grimace softened into a slight smile. "You know I'm just messin' with ya…"

"Oh…" Danny giggled and opened his arms, when suddenly Dash leaned forward and caught his lips in a passionate kiss, his strong arms wrapping around Danny's lithe body.

Sam's waking scream pierced the night.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Juniper ran down the hallway toward the garage, throwing the door open and shining her flashlight out across the cold cement. "Stupid rats and fuses trying to mess up my party…" Grumbling to herself, her bare feet plodded across the cement as she approached the fusebox set against the side of the room. She pried it open, then stepped back in surprise when small tufts of black smoke billowed out into the air. "Fantastic, that's all I needed tonight. Where are those spare fuses?"

The flashlights beam cut through the darkness in the garage, shining on the car and various odds and ends that littered the floor and walls around the car's designated area. Juniper wandered over to one side, where spare wires and batteries littered a small metal workbench. The light swept across all of the small wires and electrical pieces, but there weren't any unused fuses anywhere in sight. Leaning down, Juniper shined her light against the wall underneath it.

Her eyes went wide with a gasp when the light illuminated a little yellow creature the size of Juniper's head. At the light, the creature yelped and huddled back against the wall, muttering in a high voice and shivering in terror. Its yellow fur provided a strange contrast to pudgy cheeks upon which little red circles sat, though they seemed to move as she watched with hidden muscles. Two black stripes ran across the creature's back while the tips of its tall, pointed ears were also painted black. A jagged tail stuck straight up into the air, banging against the wall as it twitched.

Juniper spoke softly so as not to frighten the creature. "Hey little guy. You must be what spooked Jody, huh? It's okay… are you lost?" Juniper carefully crawled under the workbench, keeping the light shining on the creature. Its beady black eyes were staring at her warily, as if unsure whether to trust her or not. "Relax… I'll help you get back home. And then I can come back to my party, and everything will be okay."

She reached out one hand. "Just come with ol' Aunty Juniper, and you'll be back home in-" She stopped short, her hand freezing when the creature's eye narrowed and sparks of electricity flew from its cheeks in either direction. Without warning a stream of lightning slammed into her chest, sending her flying straight out from under the workbench and into the side of the parked car. She howled in pain as her back slammed into the door, smashing it inward and shattering the window, the pieces of which rained down around her to the floor.

"Okay, that's it, Aunty Juniper has left the building…"

Episode 22: Juniper's Pika Problem


	3. Juniper's Pika Problem

(Notes:

-"The Life and Times of Juniper Lee" is owned by Cartoon Network

-"Pokemon" is owned by Nintendo)

Episode 22: Juniper's Pika Problem

A girl leapt through the air in a backwards summersault. "Come on, stinky! I know you can do better than that!" A black and white striped monster the size of a school bus roared through the pristine park on the outskirts of Orchid Bay, its claws slashing through the air toward its attacker. But the young Chinese girl vanished through the branches of the nearby tree, her body twisting and turning through them until she popped out the top of the foliage and flew through the air, clutching in her fist a small purple stone.

"_Ara __neehan __morojar_" Juniper screamed as the stone flared with violent power, which surged forth to engulf the massive creature. It roared in defiance and tried to lumber toward her, but it collapsed to the ground under the weight of her spell, its eyes closing. The energy began to withdraw from the creature, draining its mystical power and shrinking it back down into a tiny furred creature which lay serenely on the forest floor.

By the time Juniper Lee landed in a crouch, the energy had already withdrawn back into the stone in her fist. "Hehe. Finished in plenty of time to meet Jody and Ophelia at the park." She rose to her feet with an excited grin on her face. "It'll be so nice to finally meet them without being late!"

Without warning, the skunk opened its eyes and let out a shriek of terror, whirling to put its tail up in Juniper's direction. "Wait… no! NNNOOOOOO!" Juniper raised her arms in front of her and screamed in horror.

Half an hour later she sat in her bath tub at home, grumbling about ungrateful mammals and scrubbing furiously at her body even as she tried to keep her head away from it to avoid the incredible smell. "Stupid ungrateful enchanted skunks…"

"Whew… oh mercy…" Juniper looked over at the door as a small dog pushed it open with his snout, though he stopped outside. Monroe's snout poked through the crack in the door to sniff one more time before backing out again with a yip. "What the heck did ye do to the toilet? Have some mercy, lass!"

"Oh shut up." Juniper growled. "It's not me, it's that stupid enchanted skunk." Juniper scrubbed her stomach harder, turning the skin red in her furious attempts to cleanse herself of the stench. "Thanks to that ungrateful little prick, I'm late for my meeting with Jody and Ophelia! Do you know how many times I've missed my meetings with them because of this crap? It's really starting to tick me off."

"Now June, you know that the Te Xuan Ze's responsibilities are more important than meeting your friends." Monroe's voice was soft, but firmly commanding. "The balance of the magical world is always at stake, even if it seems like a small infraction."

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it before." Juniper sighed and reached for the towel sitting beside the tub as she mumbled under her breath. "Too bad Jody and Ophelia can't hear it…"

She couldn't get rid of the awful smell, but she didn't want to simply not show up. So she dried off in a hurry, bid Monroe a hasty goodbye, and ignored his objections to her leaving as she leapt out the front door and ran as fast as her legs could take her toward the park. This was pretty fast, and she reached it in a matter of minutes, leaping over one of the small ponds in the middle to land in a crouch and jog the rest of the way to the bench where her good friends were sitting.

Her heart fell when she heard the small talk between her friends die down on her approach. Their eyes turned toward her, seeming to watch her every move as she approached the bench.

Juniper smiled nervously and coughed. "Well, hey. Sorry I'm late."

"Oh, not at all." Ophelia spoke in her usual bored monotone. "You're right on time for you." Normally this was where Jody would jump in and defend June… but this time her baby blue eyes just lowered to the sidewalk.

"Oh come on… I'm not THAT bad…" Juniper forced a giggle when neither of them spoke. "Okay, you got me. Funny joke…"

"June, this isn't funny." Jody shook her head, still refusing to look at her. "To be honest, me and Ophelia agree. We feel like we're not important to you. At all. Like we barely even count as friends, let alone best friends."

Juniper felt her heart skip a beat. "What? Not important? That's not true!"

"It takes more than words to be a friend, June." Ophelia pointed her finger at June, her eyes sharp and her tone as painfully blunt as ever. "You're always late showing up, and you always run out on us. What the Hell are we supposed to think?"

"Jody." Juniper turned to her gentler friend, clasping her hands in front of her. "Jody, come on. Back me up here. You know you're both my best friends. I need you both."

"I don't know anymore, June…" Jody still didn't look at her. "I want to believe it. We've been through a lot together. But I'm sick of not knowing where you are and whether you even want to spend any time with us. Sometimes it feels like you're avoiding us."

"I would never avoid you guys. In fact…" Juniper rushed around the back of the bench to wrap her arms around her friends' shoulders, pulling them close. "How about tonight we have a slumber party? My place, all night, no distractions, and I can't be late because you'll be at my place."

"A slumber party?" Jody finally looked up from the sidewalk, then a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Well… it sounds like fun." She suddenly grinned, always unable to resist the prospect of spending a lot of time with her friends. "Okay! I'll be there! But are you sure your mom's okay with it?"

"I uh… already got permission. I've been planning it for weeks." Juniper lied weakly. "I just wanted to surprise you. So surprise!"

"Cool! See, Ophelia? She does still like us!" Jody looked at her purple-haired friend with a victorious gaze.

"Time will tell." Ophelia sniffed and raised one hand to her nose. "What I really want to know is, what the Hell is that disgusting smell?"

Jody and Ophelia looked at each other for a moment, then raised their eyes slowly to look at Juniper, who was still leaning down over them. She felt her cheeks grow hot, as she shrugged and flashed them a nervous smile. "Um… skunk attack on the way here… it's why I was late." The two girls exchanged another glance, then stood up and moved away from her.

That evening Juniper stormed through her house, frantically yanking things out of closets and hunting through her bedroom for things to do. "Man oh man oh man, I have to get some games lined up! I can't have them sitting around bored all night!"

Monroe followed behind her, shaking his pudgy head and rolling his eyes. "Oh no, we certainly can't have that. Heaven forbid your little girlfriends yawn while the magical world is bein' ravaged by some vicious creature."

"What are the odds of something happening in the middle of my sleepover?" Juniper demanded.

Monroe sighed. "Why do ye continue to jinx things?"

"Sorry, force of habit." Juniper smiled sheepishly. She felt she was almost ready when she heart the thumping of little feet rushing down the carpet in the hallway. "Oh man, how could I forget about that?" Juniper whirled toward the door to see a little boy with a wild grin on his face twitching in the doorway.

"I know what you're doing, June." Ray Ray grinned his wicked little grin.

"Ray Ray, stay out of our way tonight. I mean it! This is my last chance to patch things up with Jody and Ophelia, and I don't need you messing it up!"

"Oh come on! I'm the life of any party! I make the ladies laugh." Ray Ray stuck out his chest and flashed a crooked smile. "It's not like you can stop me, anyway." He laughed.

TEN MINUTES LATER

"Come oonnnn Juuuuuune!" Ray Ray's voice howled from the other side of his bedroom door as his tiny fists banged on it in desperation. Juniper could barely hear him over the banging of her hammer driving the nails into the doorframe. "This is so unfair! You've got to let me out! I'm claustrophobic! Wait… oh no! I'm seeing visions! Are the walls closing in on me!? AAAAARGH!"

"Yeah, yeah, tell it to someone who hasn't heard this sort of thing a million times." Juniper climbed to her feet and tossed the hammer carelessly over her shoulder before glancing at her watch. "Alright, just enough time to get dressed and be downstairs to greet Jody and Ophelia." Brushing her hands off in front of her, Juniper rushed to her bedroom to change into a pair of purple pajamas with twinkling stars on them, then rushed downstairs just in time to hear the front doorbell.

She threw it open to see her friends standing outside in their street clothes with large backpacks slung over their shoulders. "Hey June." Jody smiled. "We're not late, are we?"

"No way! Come in, come in!" Juniper stepped aside to let the girls enter the living room, closing the door behind them. "I have the whole evening planned out! We have videos, video games, a twister mat, and my mom made us some of her killer tiny sandwiches. I swear, you think all sandwiches taste the same? You'll think again after you've had hers."

"We're already here, you don't need to entice us with slogans," Ophelia pointed out.

"Right. Well then, you two go ahead and get dressed and I'll get those mini-sandwiches." Juniper smiled and waved after her friends as they made their way down the hall toward the bathroom. Juniper rubbed her hands together with a grin. "Excellent! Nothing will interrupt tonight! Nothing!" She charged full-speed through the house, glad her parents were gone for the evening as she skidded to a stop in the kitchen and approached a plate of sandwiches on the counter.

Monroe sidled up behind her, swaying side-to-side with a tired swagger. "Just remember Lass, if somethin' happens ye can't be ignorin' your Te Xuan Ze duties."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first million times. Nothing is going to-" Juniper didn't even finish her sentence before she heard a horrified shriek from the hallway. "Aw come on! It hasn't been twenty minutes!"

"Yer a magnet for misfortune, lass." Monroe shook his head.

"I am not letting this ruin my party!" Leaving the sandwiches behind, Juniper charged out fo the kitchen and rushed down the hall. Soon she came upon Ophelia, who was standing outside the bathroom door wrapped in a towel, her face as red as a stop light. "Jody? What's going on? I heard a scream."

"A rat! There was a rat in your bathroom!" Jody screamed and pointed furiously toward the bathroom door. Ophelia was already inside the bathroom, looking around and shaking her head.

"I don't see it. Are you sure it wasn't these atrocious slippers or something?" Ophelia scoffed and kicked a pair of slippers by the bathtub.

"Yes I'm sure! It was yellow, and as big as my head I swear to God! Scared the Heck out of me!" Jody was shaking like a leaf.

"Okay, Jody. Relax. You can finish getting dressed in my bedroom, which I assure you is completely rat-free." Juniper took her friend by the shoulders and guided her toward the bedroom, where she pushed her inside and closed the door. When Jody was inside she walked back to Ophelia. "What did you see?"

"Not a thing. She did get hit on the head in PE today though, maybe that had something to do with it." Ophelia smirked. "I'm going to get dressed, then." Ophelia hefted her bag off the floor, strode into the bathroom, and closed the door behind her.

"A yellow rat as big as someone's head?" Juniper looked down as Monroe approached behind her. "Magical creature?"

"Maybe. But ones who can be seen by normal humans are rare." Monroe replied. "We should definitely be keeping our eyes open." Juniper nodded in agreement, then fell silent as the bedroom and bathroom doors opened almost simultaneously and her friends emerged. Ophelia and Jody approached wearing a deep midnight blue set of pajamas with skulls on them, and a frilly sky-blue nightgown, respectively.

"So… sandwiches!" Juniper smiled.

So the three girls retired to the living room to sit on the couch eating mini sandwich squares and watching their favorite shared movie, Pirates of the Caribbean. The evening seemed to be going well, after the rat scare earlier. The incident had almost faded from their minds when suddenly the lights in the living room began to blink. Jody screamed leapt across the couch into Ophelia's lap, clinging to her as the lights faded and left them sitting in darkness.

"Oh man, your house is messed up, June!" Jody exclaimed.

Juniper's heart leapt in her throat. She couldn't let this night go sour, it was her last chance to keep them as friends. "Nononono! It's not messed up, it's just a tiny short, that's all. Y'know what? You guys stay here and eat the sandwiches while I go check the fusebox, okay? Okay!" Juniper jumped from the sofa, snatched an emergency flashlight off of the nearby bookshelf and turned to run into the back.

Ophelia looked down at the sandwiches and popped one into her mouth around Jody, who was still clinging to her like a frightened cat. "Mmm. These sandwiches really are that awesome."

Juniper ran down the hallway toward the garage, throwing the door open and shining her flashlight out across the cold cement. "Stupid rats and fuses trying to mess up my party…" Grumbling to herself, her bare feet plodded across the cement as she approached the fusebox set against the side of the room. She pried it open, then stepped back in surprise when small tufts of black smoke billowed out into the air. "Fantastic, that's all I needed tonight. Where are those spare fuses?"

The flashlights beam cut through the darkness in the garage, shining on the car and various odds and ends that littered the floor and walls around the car's designated area. Juniper wandered over to one side, where spare wires and batteries littered a small metal workbench. The light swept across all of the small wires and electrical pieces, but there weren't any unused fuses anywhere in sight. Leaning down, Juniper shined her light against the wall underneath it.

Her eyes went wide with a gasp when the light illuminated a little yellow creature the size of Juniper's head. At the light, the creature yelped and huddled back against the wall, muttering in a high voice and shivering in terror. Its yellow fur provided a strange contrast to pudgy cheeks upon which little red circles sat, though they seemed to move as she watched with hidden muscles. Two black stripes ran across the creature's back while the tips of its tall, pointed ears were also painted black. A jagged tail stuck straight up into the air, banging against the wall as it twitched.

Juniper spoke softly so as not to frighten the creature. "Hey little guy. You must be what spooked Jody, huh? It's okay… are you lost?" Juniper carefully crawled under the workbench, keeping the light shining on the creature. Its beady black eyes were staring at her warily, as if unsure whether to trust her or not. "Relax… I'll help you get back home. And then I can come back to my party, and everything will be okay."

She reached out one hand. "Just come with ol' Aunty Juniper, and you'll be back home in-" She stopped short, her hand freezing when the creature's eye narrowed and sparks of electricity flew from its cheeks in either direction. Without warning a stream of lightning slammed into her chest, sending her flying straight out from under the workbench and into the side of the parked car. She howled in pain as her back slammed into the door, smashing it inward and shattering the window, the pieces of which rained down around her to the floor.

"Okay, that's it, Aunty Juniper has left the building…" Growling, Juniper opened her eyes in time to see the little yellow creature darting for the open doorway, vanishing into the house. Juniper gasped and widened her eyes. "No! Jody! Ophelia!" Juniper snatched the flashlight from the ground, threw herself off of the car, and ran inside as fast as she could, charging through the darkness toward the living room. She skidded to a stop on the carpet and looked around. "Jody? Ophelia?"

"Yo." Juniper almost jumped out of her pajamas when Ophelia's voice came from behind her. She whirled to see both of her friends standing in the hallway. "Heh, I've never seen someone jump so high for no reason. That was kinda cool."

"Hey!" Juniper forced a chuckle. "Yeah, you got me. Look, you two haven't seen anything kinda weird around, have you?"

"Other than Speedy Gonzalas the Yellow streaking by in a blur, no." Ophelia shook her head. "I've never seen Jody move so fast as when she yanked me into the closet over there."

"Oh man… look, relax. Try to enjoy yourselves. I've got this little rat problem under control, really." As Juniper flashed her friends a comforting smile, the overhead lights flashed, then abruptly exploded, raining sparks and shards of glass down on her head. Jody shrieked and latched herself onto Ophelia's side again, her whole body shivering in terror.

"Okay Jody, keep jumping on me and I'm going to start taking it the wrong way." Ophelia smirked.

Jody looked like she was hyperventilating as she kept clinging to Ophelia's side. "What is going on? Why is a rat making the lights explode? It's like it's magic or something!"

"Magic!?" Juniper screamed a little too loudly. "No! It's just a rat! Probably gnawing on some electrical circuits! Seriously, stay here and I'll take care of it!" Juniper turned to rush into the kitchen, shining her light around the room quickly. "Hey, Mr. 'Advisor to the Te Xuan Ze'. Get your pudgy butt out here and advise me!"

"Calm yerself, lass. What's with all the yellin'?" Monroe sauntered out from under the table with a yawn.

"Were you sleeping? What happened to 'we must keep our eyes open?" Juniper demanded.

"My eyes were open." Monroe pursed his lips and looked away when she growled and shot him an evil glare. "I'm over 400 years old, give me a break."

"Ugh, whatever." Juniper shook her head irritably. "I just saw the rat Jody was talking about. It was huge and puffy and yellow, and it had lightning coming from red spots on its cheeks."

Monroe raised one eyebrow curiously. "Lightning, y'say? Sounds familiar somehow…"

Juniper whirled in surprise when she heard a soft scratching sound from the direction of the pantry. The light shined on the door, but it wasn't really necessary. Through the crack at the bottom she could see blue flashes coming from just inside, as if from electrical sparks. Juniper exchanged a glance with Monroe, then slowly began to creep toward the closet as silently as she could. She approached the door and reached out to grip the knob, swinging it open to see the little yellow mouse form the garage tearing into a box of fruit treats.

"There you are…" Juniper grumbled. As the light swept over it, the mouse whirled away from the box to look up at her fearfully with its ears pointed straight up into the air. For several long moments they stared at each other, while Juniper's fingers flexed and her lip curled into an angry snarl. Sparks surged from the creature's rosy red cheeks, its tiny yellow fingers clutching at the box still held in their grip while its beady eyes stared into hers.

Juniper's hand shot forward, but the creature leapt straight into the air with astonishing speed to land nearly on the back of her arm. She shrieked in surprise when the creature darted up the length of her arm, leaping off of her shoulder behind her as her arm came up in a panicked attempt to bat it away. The mouse tried to run off across the room, but Juniper whirled and through herself into a roll toward the exit, sliding herself to her feet between it and the mouse.

"Oh no you don't! Raaaahhhh!" Juniper hurled her body at the creature, making several mad swings for it, but it shrieked and took off in the opposite direction, leaping into the air over Monroe's head to run toward the table. "Monroe! Do something!"

"What do ye want me to do, lass? I don't have any thumbs to catch it with!" Monroe complained.

"You lazy little…" Juniper growled and jumped to her feet, running once again after the creature. She leapt into the air at the last moment and landed on the hem of her pajama bottoms, sliding on top of it and bending down right under the table where she swiped at the creature with both hands. Caught off-guard, the creature was smacked against one of the table legs, but she couldn't get a good grip before sliding out the other side.

Her back straightened and she jumped off of her pajama legs, turning to see that the creature had already regained its composure. She prepared to give chase, but she yelled and slipped across the tiles as the creature instead threw itself right at her face with a high-pitched squeal. Juniper yelled as it latched onto her head with all four limbs, its cheeks sending a powerful rush of electricity coursing through her body.

"MMMRRRPH! MMHHPHHHH!" Juniper shrieked as her muscles spasmed, sending her tumbling back against the kitchen counter, where her wildly flailing arms sent dishes and silverware clattering to the floor. Her twitching hands couldn't even move well enough to grab the creature on her face with all of the voltage running through them.

So she whirled to put her stomach against the countertop and brought her head down with all the force she could muster. The mouse yanked on her hair and flew off of her head right before her forehead slammed into the tiled countertop with a hideous crunch. Pieces of tile flew in every direction and she lay for several moments with her forehead pressed into the freshly made crater.

"June?" She could hear Jody's voice from the living room. "June, are you okay in there?"

Juniper yanked her forehead out of the crater and stumbled back, trying to keep her footing on a ground that insisted on trying to slide out from under her. "Fiiiine! I'm fiiine! Just makin' us somefin' to eat! Don't come in, it'll spoil the surprise!"

One hand rose to her forehead as she furiously shook it clear. Once she was no longer seeing double, she turned to look around the kitchen, lit only by the steady beam of the flashlight shining on the doorway. The creature wasn't in sight, and her friends would've let her know if it had gone that way, so she whirled to look deeper into the kitchen. As she'd thought, she could see blue sparks on top of the windowsill, along with the sound of something banging on the glass in an attempt to get out.

Monroe's claws clicked across the kitchen tiles as he approached. "June, I think maybe-"

"I know, I know, I have to catch it and get it back where it belongs! I'm trying!" Juniper rushed toward the window, trying to move silently. The creature turned to watch her warily, its beady eyes reflecting the dim moonlight coming in through the window. "Now listen, you. I don't know how you got here, but you cannot stay. This is my home and I have some very important things to do right now. So just come with me and I'll find out where you belong, okay?"

"Pika!" The creature moved to dart to he left, but after Juniper moved to intercept it suddenly threw itself to the right, kicking off of the wall to fly right past the back of her leg. Juniper swore to herself and spun on the ball of her foot, taking off after the creature through the long living room, heading straight at the wall beside the entrance. Juniper flexed her fingers and made ready to grab it, but then gasped.

The creature leapt straight at the wall, then slammed into it and bounced right off again, sailing over her head in a backwards summersault. While Juniper tried to skid to a stop and reverse course, a powerful electrical surge enveloped the creature's entire body, lighting up the kitchen as bright as day. Juniper didn't even have time to swear before, with a sharp crack, a lightning strike slammed into her chest.

Her body plunged straight through the wall, which collapsed around her as she hit the floor in the living room, grunting from the impact and panting from the pain of the lightning running through her body. Her eyes opened to see stars blinking in and out of existence before her.

"Holy crap! June!" Jody's voice screamed in panic as a pair of footsteps ran across the carpet to stop beside Juniper. "Are you okay!?"

Juniper tried to raise her head, but the stars seemed to push her head back down with a thud. "I'm fiiiine! I got evrythin' undr cuntrol… go back ta havin' fun…" She blinked furiously as the stars began to dissipate from her vision, letting her see her friends' worried faces in the darkness. To her surprise they weren't looking at her.

Juniper raised her head from the floor to look at the hole she'd made in the wall. The mouse was standing on top of the rubble, its tiny fists clenched in front of it while blue sparks flared several feet from its cheeks. "Piiikaaachuuuuu." It growled. Juniper still wasn't sure what it was, but it was pissed.

"I'm thinking we should run." Ophelia suggested.

"Agreed! AAAIIIEEEEE!" Jody shrieked as lightning flashed from the creature's cheeks. They both wrapped their arms around Juniper's to haul her from the floor and yank her toward the back of the house. Blue light flared through the dark house, scorching and blowing holes in the walls and furniture as they charged down the hallway. The creature gave chase, yelling sharply and repeating the same strange word over and over.

Ophelia turned suddenly into one of the bathrooms, yanking Juniper and Jody inside with her. They dove for the doors underneath the sink and slipped inside in a mass of squished body parts, getting the door closed just before they heard the creature's tiny claws skid across the tile. They could see the blue flashes between the cracks in the door, getting brighter. Juniper gulped, her breath coming quick and hard as the flickering blue lights neared.

"Pika." The creature's voice seemed satisfied as the blue lights faded into a dimmer glow, then soon vanished into the distance with the sound of the creature's tiny claws. For a long time none of the girls said anything, holding and sitting on one-another in the tiny cabinets beneath the kitchen sink.

"I think… I think it's not coming back." Jody whispered softly. "Should we go out there?"

"Can't do much from in here," Ophelia pointed out as she pushed her hand forward to swing the door open. They climbed out one at a time, stumbling out into the open room. They were all sweating from time spent in close quarters, and their joints let loose a chorus of pops from the cramped conditions.

"Oy… my back is killing me." Juniper put her hands on her back to push it straight and turned back toward the mirror. Her hair was sticking out from her head at all angles before turning downward like some twisted bride of Frankenstein. "Ugh…"

"What is going on here?" Ophelia approached Juniper with her hands on her hips. "What is that thing, and how come you survived going straight through a wall?"

"Um… uh…" Juniper gulped. "Lucky?"

"Ophelia, this isn't the time for that! We need solutions, not accusations!" Jody stepped between them. "I say we call animal control and see if they can help."

"We're talking about an electric rat! What are they going to do, exactly? Bring their rubber nets?" Ophelia asked.

"They're not… we are." Juniper looked back and forth between her friends. "I think-"

"Who asked you?" Ophelia growled and stepped forward. "If you won't tell us the truth, if you won't tell us what is going on, why should we trust you? Something like this doesn't just suddenly appear out of nowhere for no reason in the middle of town. People cannot survive having that much voltage pumped into them, or being thrown through walls, and you're always vanishing on us if you bother to show up at all." Ophelia's eyes narrowed. It wasn't a malicious expression really; it was more like a challenge. "Why won't you level with us, June?"

"I… I…" Juniper looked to Jody for help, hoping she would jump to her defense again. But this time Jody's deep blue eyes just stared into her own, seeking those same answers. "I know, you guys do deserve an explanation, but I just don't have one to give." Juniper shrugged helplessly. "You've already noticed I'm not normal, and I can't say any more than that. I'm sorry, but I just can't."

"June, don't you trust us?" Jody asked.

"Of course I do. If it was up to me you'd know everything. But it's not…" Juniper sighed. "I'm sorry for all the times I've been late or haven't shown up or left early. I want to spend time with you guys, I really do. That's what tonight was all about, but even this got screwed up." Juniper growled in frustration and looked down at the floor. "I don't know exactly what this creature is, but I know I have to catch it." She looked up at them again. "I need your help to do it."

"Our help? Against that?" Ophelia's eyes went wide.

"It's weird, but it's still just an animal. If we can corner it maybe we can knock it out and get it in some kind of cage. I've tried, but it's just too fast for me. Maybe the three of us, working together, can corner it."

"If we corner it, won't it sort of electrocute us all?" Jody asked.

"It's risky, but I have to take care of it and I need your help. Please." Juniper clasped her hands in front of her. "You have no reason to, but please trust me. I need your help, and I wouldn't let anything happen to you. I promise." Jody and Ophelia stared at her for several moments with solemn expressions on their faces, then exchanged a meaningful glance. Juniper looked back and forth between them, sweating bullets until she finally saw Jody crack a smile.

Ophelia smiled slightly as well. "It'd be rude to just walk off and leave you to take care of this thing. We're your guests, after all."

"And your friends." Jody nodded in agreement.

"You guys…" Juniper sniffled and jumped forward to wrap them both in a tight hug, pulling them close. "Thank you thank you thank you!"

"Hey, don't mention it." Ophelia patted one shoulder while Jody patted the other. "Now how are we going to get this thing to stop fighting?"

"I have an idea. It's crazy, but I think it might work." Juniper smiled and pulled back away from them. "But you're gonna have to trust me."

"No problem there." Jody smiled. "Just tell us what we need to do."

* * *

The sound of the creature skittering around in the pantry could be heard, with the sound of bags being ripped open and boxes tearing apart. Hungry little monster, Juniper thought to herself as she crept across the kitchen toward the sink. The cabinets above it swung open and Juniper reached inside to withdraw a pair of yellow rubber kitchen gloves, which she slipped onto her hands with a grin. No lightning was getting through these things. Armed and ready, she crept toward the pantry.

She flung the pantry door open with a yell. "Ah ha!" the little yellow creature whirled in surprise, its cheeks instantly beginning to shine with sparks. Its expression darkened as the lightning built up around its body. "Bring it on, Sparky."

Lightning flashed from the creature's body, but Juniper's hand whirled through the air in a blue, intercepting it before it could touch her shoulder. The rubber glove absorbed the lightning instantly, leaving Juniper unharmed. The mouse growled and fires several more bolts, but Juniper's arms spun and whirled at a frantic pace, blocking each shot before they could reach her. At last the mouse gave up, its expression again turning to one of fear.

"Giving up?" Juniper grinned. "Guess not," Juniper said when the creature vanished in a yellow blue, streaking right between her legs and charging for the door. "Ophelia!" Juniper screamed.

The mouse reached the door, but suddenly a broom swept down from beside it like a golf club, slamming face-first into the creature and sending it hurtling back through the kitchen like a golf ball. Its body twisted and turned through the air until it slammed into the table and skidded off the other side with a yelp. Juniper and Ophelia met in the middle of the room, Juniper wearing her gloves and Ophelia wielding her broom like a club.

A moment later Jody popped up from behind the table, holding a glass cookie jar with the mouth contained inside it. "Operation successful!" She yelled happily. The mouse inside the jar yelled and beat furiously as the glass, practically spinning in its anxiety to get out, but any electricity it created didn't do much.

"Whew." Juniper sighed and pulled off her gloves with a smile. "Good job Jody. And great shot Ophelia."

Ophelia grinned and lifted the broom to her shoulder. "Hey, whacking things is an essential skill all girls need."

Jody approached with the glass jar in her hands, peering inside at the creature, which had finally given up and was sitting on the bottom of the jar looking forlorn. "Awww, she looks upset."

"Don't worry, I'll get her back where she belongs." Juniper moved to take the creature, but stopped when she heard someone clear their throat from the door. She looked over to see Monroe standing in the doorway and jerking his head for Juniper to follow. "You guys hold onto that, I'm just gonna go figure out where it belong. Be back in a sec." Juniper flashed her friends a smile and wandered into the living room, where she whispered to Monroe. "Where the heck have you been?"

Monroe scoffed. "While you were all yelling and causing a commotion, I've been looking up the creature in my books. It's a magical creature alright, one of an entire world of the things that can be seen by normal humans."

"Are you serious?" Juniper's eyes went wide. "An entire world of them?"

"Aye. They're not all like that little guy though. This one's called a Pikachu. They're actually quite friendly, but I imagine accidentally wandering into another dimension spooked the little guy."

"How did it get here though? Is it really possible to just wander between worlds?"

"Orchid Bay is the nexus between Earth and the worlds of magic, all of which are constantly revolving around one another in the magical planes of existence. Once every five thousand years our world and this other world come close enough for it and Orchid Bay to become linked together for one hundred years. During this time, yes, portals will open up. The last time it happened, a group of nature-lovin' humans decided to move there to be one with the natural world. And there was the big Platypus migration… creatures never did belong on this planet."

"A hundred years?" Juniper groaned. "You mean there'll be more of these things?"

Monroe nodded. "Aye, I imagine there will be. We'll have to stay sharp to keep contact between them and the normal people here to a minimum. For now, we should be content to get this little guy back home."

"Right." Juniper shook her head and turned to head back to the kitchen, but stopped after taking no more than two steps. She looked down at the floor, her mind suddenly racing.

"Is there something wrong, June?" Monroe asked.

"Let me tell them, Monroe." Juniper turned back to look at her advisor with a pleading gaze. "Jody and Ophelia, let me tell them about my powers."

Monroe sighed. "June, we've been over this-"

"I trust them! They won't tell anyone!" Juniper fell to her knees in front of them so that they were closer to eye level. "If they don't tell, what's the harm in telling them? I need friends, Monroe! I already gave up Marcus for this, don't make me give them up too!"

Monroe shook his head. "It just isn't done."

Juniper growled. "Yeah? You know what else isn't done? A freaking eight-year-old taking up the Te Xuan Ze mantle, but that's exactly what I did! Ever since then I've done the best I possibly can, but I've never had anyone who can relate to me besides Ray-Ray! I always feel like I have to be on-guard, like I'm always separate and alone!" She leaned down further, staring into her advisor's beady wet eyes. "I'm tired of being separate and alone, Monroe. Even as a kid it was like this, and it… it…"

Monroe stared up into her eyes, then heaved a heavy sigh and lowered his gaze to the floor.

* * *

Jody giggled and dropped another fruit snack on the floor, watching the big yellow mouse skitter across the floor to scoop it into its mouth. "Well, look at that. It wasn't that violent after all, it was just scared and hungry." She reached out with one hand to pat the creature behind the ears. It squeaked and flattened its pointed ears back against its head.

"You realize if you'd been wrong we would both be, at best, in incredible pain," Ophelia pointed out.

"Yeah, but how can you keep this cute face locked up in a jar? You can't can you? Oh no you can't." Jody pursed her lips into a funny face and scratched the mouse's cheek gently. It squeaked louder as sparks flew from between her fingers, but it didn't shock her. "You don't suppose we could keep it, do you?"

Ophelia stared at her drolly. "You have got to be kidding."

"What? No. It's cute!" Jody giggled and poked the creature in the stomach, pushing it to its back and scratching its belly with her fingertips. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? Yes you would!"She laughed as the creature let out a mirthful yelp and its tail slapped against the floor. "Look! It's even ticklish! Tell me that's not the cutest thing you ever saw!"

Ophelia rolled her eyes "I need a dentist." Though for some reason she had a slight smile on her face.

Jody and Ophelia both looked toward the entrance of the kitchen when they heard a girl clear her throat. Juniper stepped into the kitchen, into the light of the small lantern Ophelia had found in one of the cabinets. Juniper's expression was strangely solemn as she approached, with her hands clasped behind her back.

"What's up, June? You find out anything about our mouse?" Jody poked the creature's stomach, prompting a tiny, high-pitched giggle. "That is so CUTE!"

"Heh… it is when it's not trying to kill us all." Juniper looked down at the creature, not really looking interested in it. She stopped in front of her friends and kneeled down in front of them, finally breaking into a broad smile as she looked back and forth between them. "There's always been so much I couldn't tell you guys… until now. It'll be hard to believe, but trust me when I say I have proof, and when I'm finished, you'll understand why you can never breathe a word of it to anyone."

Jody and Ophelia sat up straight with interest, their eyes locking on Juniper's while the big yellow mouse nuzzled up against Jody's side.

It was a fantastic story. One that seemed so outlandish that it couldn't possibly be real. Yet after she had finished, Juniper showed them some of the artifacts in her bedroom. And after seeing what they could do, Jody and Ophelia had no choice but to believe it. The shock of discovering something so incredible living right under their noses all this time made Jody go numb, though her hand kept stroking the back of the yellow mouse perched on her arm.

"So…" Ophelia stared at Juniper from her perch on the side of her bed. "You're like a witch or something?"

"I'm called the Te Xuan Ze which, translated, means The Great Protector."

Jody shook her head in amazement. "That is so weird. Like finding out your mom is the queen of England. Or… something that's just plain weird!"

"Well, those are the facts. That's why I disappear so much." Juniper nodded and gulped, her hands wringing together on the edge of the bed. Her body looked like it was shaking like a leaf. "I… I understand if you want to walk away from me now. It's pretty freaky stuff. Just don't tell anyone about this."

"Who'd believe us?" Ophelia smirked. "We'll only tell if we feel like wearing straight jackets and getting peered at by doctors for the rest of our lives."

"Beyond that, we wouldn't betray your confidence, June." Jody smiled. "Wow… all this time we thought you were being a rotten friend, and half the time you were busy saving our lives."

"Yeah, believe me, that's occurred to me too." Juniper grumbled.

"I can't speak for Jody, but I'm not going anywhere." Ophelia approached and slung one lazy arm around Juniper's shoulders. "Do you know how awesome it would be to have a magical friend? Bet you have all kinds of fun stuff in here."

"Then we're both with you, June." Jody approached and hugged her from the front with a broad smile.

Juniper giggled. "Awwww. You guys are the best!" Juniper slung her arms around her two friends in a tight hug.

"Pikachu!" The mouse perched on Jody's shoulder leapt to the top of Juniper's head, snuggling down into the long strands of hair that were still sticking straight up from all the voltage earlier.

Juniper giggled. "Awww, thanks little guy.

"Girl." Jody smiled. "By the way, do you think we could keep her? She's just so cute, I can't resist!"

Juniper frowned. "I don't know, normal people aren't supposed to know about magical creatures. Someone could see her."

"How would they know she's magical? We could just tell them she's foreign, and nobody would know the difference. Come on, pleasepleaseplease!?" Jody grinned pleadingly.

"I bet it would work too, the school system around here sucks." Ophelia smirked.

"Well… okay. But she's staying with me, and you can come visit her whenever you want."

"Awesome!" Jody plucked the mouse off of Juniper's head and held it in her arms, cooing down at it. "You need a name now, don't you? Yes you do. Hmmmm…" The three girls stared at the creature.

"Pikachu." The mouse blinked. "Pikachu, pika pi chu Pikachu. Pikachu."

"I got it!" Jody exclaimed. "We'll call her… Petunia!" The mouse stared at her for a moment, then grumbled and collapsed into her arms.

Juniper had to suppress a laugh. "I think it's a fine name, Jody." Juniper slung her arms around the two of them. "Now, who's up for finding the fuses and getting the lights back on?"

"I know that's my preferred party activity," Ophelia said with her typical drollness.

"Let's do it! Our first adventure together! No, wait, second... woohoo!" Jody turned to run down the dark hallway toward the garage, with Juniper and Ophelia hot on her heels.

Monroe watched from the living room with a steady gaze, his lips a straight, unsure line. This had never been done before in the long history of the Te Xuan Ze. It broke so many rules and traditions that he didn't know where to begin counting them all. But as Juniper had pointed out, tradition had already been broken several times where she was concerned. The magic never manifested in one so young, and yet it had. Maybe this was meant to be a new age for the Te Xuan Ze. He worried silently that maybe this would come back to haunt them, but for now, Juniper seemed happy with the results. Plus, he thought with a small smile, seeing her so happy made him happy too.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

"I'm not hungry, mother…" A second, raspy voice replied. Star blinked and stepped away from the door, walking through the bathroom toward the lines of stalls.

"It's been so long and your condition hasn't improved at all…" Paulina's voice was shaking, and Star now realized it was coming from the last stall in the line. "You have to keep your strength up, please. Eat."

"There's no point." The second raspy voice replied with a heavy sigh. "I've long outlived my life… I don't belong here…"

"Don't say that!" Paulina shouted. "There must be something. Some way to keep you strong. What do you need?"

"I don't know." The dark voice replied. By now Star was approaching the last stall, creeping up to it and looking carefully through the crack in the door. Paulina was sitting on the closed seat, holding a couple of French Fries in her hand. Star gasped when she saw a black shadow of a figure, how even as tall as Paulina's arm, lying across her lap. Its essence seemed weak and fragile, its glowing green eyes flickering within the darkness and its breath deep and raspy.

"Mange, please, don't give up." Paulina smiled sadly. "I promised I would help you, and I'm going to do just that."

"Mange…?" Star gasped. She'd heard that name before, Sam had told her all about what happened a year ago in Townsville. Mange was no friend of anyone's, it had tried to kill several people.

The shadow's glowing green eyes narrowed for a moment, then turned to stare straight at her through the crack in the stall door. Star gasped and jumped back, hitting the opposite wall with a heavy thud before turning to run for the door. She was halfway there before suddenly a shadow leapt form the floor in front of her, landing between her and the door and lifting its hands to the side, where they elongated into a pair of thick, black blades.

Episode 23: The Dark Child


	4. The Dark Child

(Notes: "The Powerpuff Girls" is owned by Cartoon Network)

Episode 23: The Dark Child

A bright blue sky, a gentle breeze from the north, and a group of friends going to the mall to hang out and do jack crap. Life continued to be good, though Jazz's departure still hung heavy in Star's mind. She promised herself she would wait though. Without tears or outbursts she would wait for Jazz to return to Amity Park. In the meantime of course, she still had her friends to lean on. Danny, Sam, and Paulina, all of whom were walking with her.

"I hear they're setting up their Christmas decorations!" Paulina jumped in glee. "That means Christmas sale prices are soon to follow!"

Sam blinked. "Christmas? It's the middle of summer!"

Paulina raised one finger. "You can never start Christmas shopping too early."

Danny chuckled. "She has a point, you know."

Sam rolled her eyes and shook her head, grumbling under her breath as they crossed the parking lot to the mall. Walking through the glass doorways was like stepping through a portal to the future. Christmas decorations hung from the ceiling, and wrapped around every pole in a festive display of red, green, and gold. The people walked around with expressions of utter confusion on their faces, as if convinced they had missed more than half a year of their own lives.

"Wwooooww. This is all kinds of sick." Sam shook her head.

"On the upside, maybe they'll have some discounts at the food court. I'm kind of hungry." Star rubbed her stomach.

"Then let's hit the food stands!" Paulina pointed dramatically toward the food court, then took off toward it at a brisk jog. Star giggled and followed hot on her heels, with Sam and Danny following close behind. Soon they were sitting at one of the small round tables, each poking at plates of their preferred foods. Sam was busy tearing at her vegetarian pizza, while Paulina swirled French Fries around a cup of melted cheese. Danny munched on a pair of hot dogs, and Star poked luxuriously at a plate of spicy chicken wings. Danny would never have guessed her to share Tucker's pallet before they got to know one-another. Just proved what they said about not judging a book by its cover.

Paulina glanced at her watch and looked around. "Hey, I have to go to the little girls' room. I'll be right back, 'kay?" She stood up and rushed toward the hallway without waiting for a response, vanishing around the corner.

"Well, that was abrupt." Sam blinked.

"You gotta go, you gotta go." Danny shrugged.

Sam chuckled and looked around the food court as she ate, then looked down at Danny's hand as it moved to grip hers under the table. "Um, hello. Can I help you with something?" Sam asked curiously.

"What?" Danny looked at her. "I'm just holding your hand."

Sam huffed. "Well, why are you always doing that? You keep touching me for no reason!"

Danny's eyes widened. "What? I'm just being affectionate!"

"We're affectionate at home! Why do you have to do it in public!? It's embarrassing!" Sam exclaimed.

"Embarrassing? So, what, you don't want anyone to know we're together? Is there maybe a reason for that!?" Danny glared.

"Are you accusing me of something!?" Sam growled like a ticked off lioness.

"I gotta pee like a racehorse!" Star leapt from her chair and ran for the bathrooms, eager to be anywhere but there. She loved Sam and Danny like dear friends, but occasionally they would launch into these spats and create an entire ocean of awkwardness Star just wasn't ready to deal with. So she retreated into the bathroom, where she leaned against the door and tried to catch her heavy breath.

As Star's breath slowed, she could hear Paulina's voice murmuring from further into the bathroom. "Eat… please eat something…"

"I'm not hungry, mother…" A second, raspy voice replied. Star blinked and stepped away from the door, walking through the bathroom toward the lines of stalls.

"It's been so long and your condition hasn't improved at all…" Paulina's voice was shaking, and Star now realized it was coming from the last stall in the line. "You have to keep your strength up, please. Eat."

"There's no point." The second raspy voice replied with a heavy sigh. "I've long outlived my life… I don't belong here…"

"Don't say that!" Paulina shouted. "There must be something. Some way to keep you strong. What do you need?"

"I don't know." The dark voice replied. By now Star was approaching the last stall, creeping up to it and looking carefully through the crack in the door. Paulina was sitting on the closed seat, holding a couple of French Fries in her hand. Star gasped when she saw a black shadow of a figure, how even as tall as Paulina's arm, lying across her lap. Its essence seemed weak and fragile, its glowing green eyes flickering within the darkness and its breath deep and raspy.

"Mange, please, don't give up." Paulina smiled sadly. "I promised I would help you, and I'm going to do just that."

"Mange…?" Star gasped. She'd heard that name before, Sam had told her all about what happened a year ago in Townsville. Mange was no friend of anyone's, it had tried to kill several people.

The shadow's glowing green eyes narrowed for a moment, then turned to stare straight at her through the crack in the stall door. Star gasped and jumped back, hitting the opposite wall with a heavy thud before turning to run for the door. She was halfway there before suddenly a shadow leapt form the floor in front of her, landing between her and the door and lifting its hands to the side, where they elongated into a pair of thick, black blades. Star skidded to a stop so fast she slipped on the tile and fell to her butt.

"Mange! No!" Paulina shouted as she emerged from the stall.

"She will… reveal my existence." The shadow insisted. Her voice was stuttering and weak, and its essence was swirling more unsteadily than it had before.

"She's my best friend! I'm sure she'll be quiet about it? Right Star?" Paulina stared at her with her hands clasped in front of her, her eyes pleading.

"Paulina, what… what's going on?" Star asked, her eyes wide. "Isn't this…?"

"I know!" Paulina walked up to her. "I found her after… he… was destroyed." She hesitated a moment before mentioning him. She had spent a long time worshipping him, and Star suspected she still wasn't sure she did the right thing in betraying him. But she seemed happy enough most of the time, and if it wasn't for her, Sam and the others would all be dead. "I know Sam said she did all these horrible things, but when I found her she was so hurt and pathetic. I just couldn't leave her there."

"Paulina, she's a killer!"

"Not anymore! She's changed!" Paulina insisted. "We've spending a lot of time together since then, and she just wants to go on with her life now." Paulina grabbed her arms tightly, staring into her eyes. "Please, please promise me you won't tell anybody about her. She's not a danger to anyone, but I'm afraid someone might try to hurt her. Pleeeaaaaase!"

"Well…" Star looked back and forth between Paulina and Mange. She knew the shadow was dangerous, but she had to admit it did look kind of pathetic. Even the blades its arms had extended into looked dull and shimmery, like they could simply collapse at a moment's notice the second she swung at anything. "Okay… okay, Paulina. I trust you." She forced a smile. She did trust her… but not quite enough to trust her with a killer shadow. She had to let Danny and Sam know somehow. But Paulina didn't have to know.

"Thank you." Paulina stepped forward and wrapped her in a tight hug, something she never would've done before her experiences with Danny Phantom's dark side. Then she pulled back and flashed her a more characteristic smile. "Now let's go! There have got to be Christmas sales around here somewhere!"

"Yeah." Star smiled nervously and stepped back, looking down at the shadow as Paulina approached it. Her eyes went wide when the shadow was lifted up against her chest, then faded from sight inside of her. When she was gone Paulina smiled and rubbed her chest as she turned toward Star. "Um, so she's been hiding in your chest this whole time?"

"She's safe there. Says it's like mother's womb." Paulina giggled. "Gross, but it makes me feel pretty good to protect someone, you know?"

Star grumbled under her breath. "A puppy is always an option…"

"What?"

"Nothing. Let's go catch up with Sam and Danny." Star smiled. So they left the bathroom behind, while Star's mind raced with the implications of this. Truthfully, there weren't any unexplained deaths in Amity Park since the end of the battle in Townsville, so she shadow must be pretty well under control for now. But that could be just because it was weak. What if it did one day regain its strength? Could Paulina control it? Would it begin killing again? Yeah, Danny had to know.

When Star and Paulina returned, Danny and Sam were seated in their former spaces, though they were facing pointedly away from each other with their elbows propped up on the table. They were both still eating, though neither of them looked like they were particularly enjoying their meal.

"Um… wow. Chilly." Paulina shivered before they reached the table and turned to Star. "Way too intense for me. I'm gonna head on out to the clothing store, if you're smart you'll come with me and leave them alone."

"Yeah, I'll be right behind you. I just want to let them know where we'll be." Star smiled. Paulina waved and went on her way, and once she was out of sight Star rushed back to the table with Danny and Sam. She sat down in front of her plate again, but ignored the remaining chicken wings. "Guys! I think something's wrong with Paulina!"

"Oh, is she a cold fish too?" Danny asked venomously.

Sam rolled her eyes and glared at Danny out of the corner of her eye. "Tell the Cow Killer over there name calling is the recourse of an incapable mind." Danny turned to glare at her, then opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue with a half-chewed hot-dog beanie perched on the end of it. "Ugh!" Sam exclaimed and covered her eyes. With a smirk of victory, Danny drew back the mass and swallowed it.

Star cleared her throat. "Um… well anyway, I followed Paulina into the bathroom, right? And I heard her talking to herself, but she wasn't talking to herself, she was-"

"Hey, if you have a problem in the girls' room, I'm sure Danny would be more than willing to help you out." Sam huffed. "All he ever wants to do is touch me, maybe you could give him something else to touch and he'll leave me alone."

"Oh, sending me away so I'm not driving away the boys, are you?" Danny turned to glare at her.

"Umm…." Star hesitated. "Paulina…"

Sam interrupted her. "Yeah, Danny, why don't you go mess around with Paulina? We all know you've wanted to for years."

"Oh don't you bring that up! That was a long time ago! And I never actually KISSED her, unlike you and that Mike kid from before you moved here."

Sam's jaw dropped. "Oh. My. God. I cannot believe you're bringing that up again! When will you let it die!? It was one kiss when we were twelve!"

"Plus, let's not forget Gregor." Danny started counting on his fingers. "And I recall Tucker telling me about one incident. You've even kissed Dash! How gross is that!?"

Sam growled and her fist suddenly launched forward, socking him right in the face. Danny's chair flew backward and he collapsed to the floor with a thunderous clatter that drew all eyes toward them. Star's eyes widened, as did Danny's as Sam stood from her seat with her fists shaking. "Yeah? Well you can kiss my ass!" She turned to march away from the table, punching angrily at the air, narrowly avoiding those who walked too close to her.

Star could only watch with wide eyes while Danny picked himself up off the floor, stiffly climbing to his feet. He glared after Sam for a moment, then turned to march in the opposite direction, toward the bathrooms.

Suddenly, Star was torn. She knew she had to do something about Paulina, but now she was worried about Sam and Danny. It looked like they were really angry at each other, more than any other spat they'd ever had. Sam was a pacifist, it took a lot to make her hit someone. But at the same time she didn't want to let Paulina wander around with that dangerous shadow any longer. What was she supposed to do now? What COULD she do?

Nothing… so she sat in her seat and stared down at her plate, whimpering like a wounded puppy while she slowly nibbled away at her chicken wings.

* * *

Paulina's high-heels plopped through the mall, echoing off of the high domed ceiling as she made her way toward Club Banana, her favorite place in the whole world to shop for clothing. Everything was so expensive it made her feel like a princess. Having her father's credit card in hand was always essential, and she felt around her pocket to make sure she had it before entering. Her lips spread into a wide grin as she looked around at the various clothing options that hung on the racks.

She could feel Mange hiding inside of her body, seeing through her eyes and thinking through her mind. Mange was wondering if they would ever find a way to heal her. "I'm sure we will." Paulina answered the unasked question in a soft whisper. "We just have to figure out what you need. I'm sure we can figure it out, between the two of us."

She shook her head as she moved through the rows of clothing. What did they know about Mange? Mange's thoughts answered her silent question. She was some kind of energy being, created from the mind and powers of a girl known as Buttercup in Townsville. It was through a link with her powers that Mange had sustained herself before, but when Buttercup's original powers had been cut, it severed her connection to Mange too. Mange was on her own, without a source of life energy…

Paulina shook her head and approached the counter after picking out a few articles of clothing to buy. It was a strange puzzle, one that was way beyond her ability to figure out. So she placed her clothing on the countertop, a few tops and underwear she decided she could use. She blinked when she realized the old man behind the counter was giving her a strange look.

"What are you looking at?" Paulina demanded.

"Nothing… I just think these'll look good on you." The man cackled as he scanned through her underwear.

"At least I can afford 'em." Paulina huffed, feeling her cheeks growing hot. "Just scan the things and tell me how much I owe you."

"A hundred twenty five… and a smile." The man grinned again. Paulina flushed again, really getting tired of this. She liked attention, but there was a difference between 'peer admiration' and 'creepy old man stare.'

She could feel Mange growing restless as well, seething at the man's twisted smirk. Paulina tried to ignore it, holding out her credit card along with her I.D. to the man. He took them, but as he did his fingers brushed against the back of her hand.

Paulina gasped in surprise when a shadow surged down her arm, the leapt forth to slam into the man, knocking him back against the wall behind the counter. As he slid to the floor out of sight, Paulina rushed to get a better look, seeing Mange pinning him to the floor with her blades on his throat. "Mange! What're you doing!?"

"Sick old man." Mange's dark voice spat in anger. "He was making unbecoming gestures toward you!"

"Yes, but you can't hurt him! Come on, you promised!" Paulina exclaimed.

"I can sense something…" Mange trailed off, staring down at the man. "Something I think I need…"

"Mange?" Paulina's eyes went wide as the shadow pushed forward, its blades vanishing into the man's throat, but without touching it. Soon its dark body had vanished, seeping inside of the man. He stared up at her with wide, terrified eyes, then opened his mouth in a scream that she couldn't hear. Paulina's breathe caught in her throat, her eyes going wide when the man just stopped moving. His chest stopped rising and falling and his head fell back against the floor with a dull thud. "M… Mange? What…"

As she watched, the shadow's dark body rose from the still body of the man, its green eyes now bright and vibrant, though its body still shifted in weakness. Mange stared up into Paulina's eyes as she brought her hands up in front of her. It spoke in a strong voice, though one that remained dark and raspy. Paulina could barely believe what Mange said, her heart torn between happiness and horror. "I feel strong."

* * *

The next morning, Danny awakened, scrunched down into the sofa in the living room as the early morning light shone in through the window. He groaned when it shone straight into his eyes, and tried to turn to face into the couch, but suddenly a shadow appeared to block it. He heaved a sigh of relief and settled down again until he felt a thick, powerful hand grip his shoulder. Opening he eyes, he saw the bulky silhouette of his father peering down at him.

"Danny? Why are you on the sofa?" Jack asked in confusion.

"Hi, dad." Danny yawned and moved to sit up, his bones popping and creaking in protest the whole way. "Ugh… me and Sam had a bit of a fight yesterday."

"Oo. Women." Jack sat down beside him and patted his shoulder. "Why don't you tell me about it? I know all about screwing up with my wife. I'm practically an expert, and whatever you did, I promise you I've done worse."

"Um, yeah…" Danny coughed. "Well… I tried to hold her hand and she just started getting mad at me, for no reason! Then things got heated, and she called me a cow killer… and I sort of implied that she was a slut…"

Jack whistled. "Oh man. Boy, you messed up big time. I mean BIG. You'll be lucky if she ever forgives you!"

Danny buried his face in his hands. "Thanks dad, you're a wellspring of comfort." He heaved a sigh and looked up over his hands. "I just don't get why she would explode like that. All I did was hold her hand! This isn't the first time either, it seems like lately any time I try to kiss her or hold or hand or… well… anything, she gets irritated and angry. Is she just not attracted to me anymore? Am I not… y'know… good enough? What's changed?"

"Well Danny, there's only one answer to what's different about women from one day to the next. And it's something all husbands need to learn to watch out for." Jack leaned in close to whisper conspiratorially into his ear. "PMS."

Danny blinked. Thankfully he didn't have to respond, as Sam walked downstairs a couple of minutes later, fully dressed for the day as opposed to Danny, who was still lounging on the sofa in his pajamas. She cast him little more than an acidic glance before turning to head into the kitchen, from which Danny could smell eggs and grits being prepared for breakfast. Danny sighed and hung his head again, feeling his father squeeze his shoulder.

"You'll get through it, Danny. Everyone goes through hard times. And I know you can last through this one." Jack flashed him one more smile, then turned to head into the kitchen after Sam and the smell of food. Danny waited a few more moments, wondering if he should just fly away and grab something at Nasty Burger, but decided instead to brave the kitchen and Sam's presence. Or he would have, if there wasn't a sudden knock at the door.

So he walked back to the door and pushed it open to see Star standing on the other side, fidgeting nervously and holding up a newspaper. Danny looked at the headline for a moment 'Club Banana Employee Suffers Mysterious Heart Attack', with a picture of a creepy looking old man with a crooked grin.

"Um…" Danny looked at Star curiously. "Is this a new hobby or something?"

"No, I'm afraid it might be worse." Star lowered the newspaper. "Can we talk? In private?"

"Sure." Danny stepped outside and closed the door behind him, since the streets and sidewalk were empty. "What's going on?"

"This happened at Club Banana!" Star exclaimed, like this was supposed to mean something to him. "Paulina loves Club Banana! She never shops anywhere else!"

"I still don't see the connection."

"Danny, look. Yesterday at the mall, I followed Paulina into the bathroom and heard her talking to herself. But she wasn't talking to herself… someone was in there with her. Someone she's been hiding for the last year." She moved closer, as if afraid one of the bushed beside his door was trying to listen in on them. "It was Mange. The shadow thing that you encountered last year."

Danny froze, staring at her with sudden interest. "Are you sure?"

"It fit the description, and she even called it by name. She said she found it wounded, and she's been trying to nurse it back to health ever since."

"What is she, crazy?" Danny rubbed his head.

"Maybe… but she's not trying to hurt anyone, Danny. So please go easy on her, whatever you do." Star grabbed one of his hands. "She's been a good friend to me, and I don't want to see her hurt." Once, Danny would have believed that this had nothing to do with him. He'd never gone out of his way to stop crime… but with the ghosts gone, and so many other problems in the world, he wasn't going to let anyone hurt others without looking into it.

"Alright, I'll look into it. Well, Danny Phantom will." Danny pulled his hands away from her, and glanced around to make sure nobody was around. "Because I'm going ghost!" He leapt into the air, a ring of powerful light shining around his waist, which slowly expanded across his length as a pair of bright rings. By the time the rings swept over his body, which glowed with bright ecto-energy over his black and white ghost-suit with the ghostly D on his chest, he was already well on his way into the air, where he paused to reorient.

"Alright, early morning, Paulina's probably still in her room putting on makeup. Nice, private place to have a heart-to-heart." Danny whirled through the air to fly like a bullet toward Paulina's mansion, his legs melding together into a single ghostly tail, which whipped through the air behind him.

He reached her place quickly and floated down toward her bedroom, hovering outside the window to peer inside. As he'd thought, she was sitting in front of her mirror, dressed for the day, but with at least eighteen jars of makeup spread out in front of her. He could see her lips moving, but he couldn't see anyone else in the room she could be talking to. So he faded into invisibility and phased through the windows, hovering just inside her room.

"I'm so glad you're feeling better… but I just don't know." Pauling lowered the blush she'd been applying and bit her lip. "What happened was so…"

"I have no choice, mother." Danny whirled when he heard another voice, a deep, raspy voice that was coming from the bed. His eyes lowered to the bottom of the bed, to see a pair of swirling green eyes resting in the concealing shadows. "It is the only way to heal my body… please, mother, I know you want to see me whole again."

"Of course I do. But… I know he was a creep, but he was still a person. We can't just start doing that to people."

"You people eat cows and fish all the time to survive… we all do what we must to survive. If this is what I must do to survive, how can anyone tell me it's wrong?"

Danny floated forward and landed on the carpet. "I think I have to side with mommy on this one." Danny let himself fade into sight, getting a stunned look from Paulina, who whirled from her mirror. The green eyes under the bed widened in shock, and the small black figure vaulted out from the shadows, landing before him and throwing its hands out to the side. Five massive blades extended from each hand, whirling through the air to orient on him. "Ah, good, you remember me. Don't have to introduce myself. I hate doing that." Danny dropped into a solid stance, his wrists flicking out to the sides as pulsing green ecto-energy formed in his palms.

"NO!" Paulina shrieked and leapt between them, holding her arms out to the sides and facing Danny. "You don't understand! She's not bad!"

"I just heard her say she killed someone! And planned to do it again!"

"Just… just until she's healed…" Paulina said almost desperately.

"We're talking about killing people!" Danny protested. "You know better than this Paulina!"

Paulina looked down guiltily, but suddenly the shadow leapt between her legs, rolling in between them and glaring up at Danny. "Leave her alone! This is between you and me, spirit. In fact…" Mange narrowed her eyes. "I bet your energy would be more than enough to bring me back to my full strength."

"Yeah, I'm gonna have to veto that idea too." Danny clenched his fists. "But hey, if you want me, come and get me."

"Mange! No!" Paulina's shout had no effect, however. The shadow launched itself forward, its many blades arching toward Danny in a vicious slash. Danny yawned as his body shifted into intangibility, letting the shadow fly right through him and clear out the window right behind him. The glass shattered as the shadow flew into the air, its essence stretching out to the sides in a pair of magnificent wings, which caught the wind and kept it airborne.

Danny whirled and took off after the shadow, his legs fusing again into a ghostly tail as he arched through the sky after it. His hands glowed green as he neared the shadow, and let loose a rain of ecto-blasts. The shadow weaved through them, its essence shifting around several that came close to hitting it. The blasts slammed harmlessly into the street below while the shadow whirled through the air, turning up to bring a blade suddenly lashing around toward him.

Gasping in surprise at the sudden attack, Danny whirled upward, narrowing avoiding the blade, which left a line of darkness where it cut the air. Danny lurched back further toward the sky as several more furious slashes cut the air, then threw himself forward and phase through her body. He whirled and threw his hand out, a green ecto-shield forming just in time to block an oncoming blade, which veered off-course on contact.

Danny's other hand thrust forward, sending a powerful ecto-blast straight into Mange's chest. The shadow grunted in pain and flew back through the air, its body arching back down toward the street. It came down on the hood of a passing car with a sickening crunch, the hood of the car smashing inward as the black body buried itself inside of it, then flew free as the car screeched to a halt. Mange bounces across the street, landing face-down on the pavement nearby. Another car swerved to the side, narrowing avoiding running her over before it, too, screeched to a stop.

With his hands glowing and ready to fight, Danny floated down toward the shadow, which was groaning and trying to push itself up from the pavement. Danny landed in front of it, watching it try to pull itself to its hands and knees. Its swirling green eyes looked up at him. He expected her to be angry, to try one last assault. But the look in her eyes was more… frightened. She was scared, and her body was trembling.

"Mange!" Paulina ran out into the street as fast as she could, dropping to the street beside the shadow and scooping her dark body up in her arms. "Danny, leave her alone! She doesn't want to hurt anyone!"

"I heard you! She's going to kill someone else!" Danny stepped forward, trying to speak in a more calm voice. "Paulina…"

"So what are you going to do? Kill her?" Paulina's arms wrapped around Mange tighter, holding her head against her chest. "How can you even think of that?"

"I…" Danny hesitated. He hadn't thought much further than simply stopping her from killing others; he hadn't considered just how he would do that. He couldn't throw her in jail, her powers would keep them from ever holding her, and he didn't have a Ghost Zone to throw her into. How did he plan to stop her from hurting anyone else? "Look, Paulina. You said she needs some sort of energy to survive," Danny pointed out.

"Life energy." Paulina nodded. "She doesn't have any of her own."

"Life energy, eh?" Danny stroked his chin in thought. "I think I have an idea. You go back to my p… I mean, FentonWorks. The people there will keep you safe until I come back."

Paulina raised one eyebrow curiously. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to see if I can call in a favor." Danny rose from the ground. "I want you to keep that shadow from hurting anyone else, and let the others know what's going on. I'll be back as soon as I can." With that, he whirled and streaked high into the sky, heading for the tallest rooftop he could find. He would soon be vulnerable, and needed a good place to hide.

* * *

Star walked into the FentonWorks kitchen, where she found Danny's parents and Sam sitting around the table munching on breakfast. The Fenton parents were chatting amiably with one another, but Sam was glaring down at her food like it was about to attack her. Star coughed and stepped further inside to call attention to herself.

"Oh, good morning Star." Maddie Fenton smiled. "If I'd known you were coming, I would've made you some."

"Oh, that's not necessary Mrs. Fenton. I already had breakfast. Thank you, though." Star smiled and walked around the table to sit beside Sam. Sam glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, then looked down at her food again as she scooped some grits onto her fork and stuffed them into her mouth. Star coughed and looked down at the table again, then leaned close to speak in a low voice the adults couldn't hear. "Want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what? I'm fine." Sam replied around a mouthful of grits, glancing pointedly at the adults seated close by. So Star settled for chatter about movies and books until Sam finished breakfast and excused herself form the table. They wandered into the living room, where they settled down on the sofa and Sam sighed. "He's just… always touching me. I can't even sleep without him trying to get up on me and hug me. It's annoying. Like what, he thinks I'm a toy he can touch and play with any time he feels like it?"

"I'm sure he doesn't think that. He's not that kind of guy."

"Yeah? Could've fooled me. And then what he said yesterday…" Sam growled. "That was so far outta line."

"Well, have you mentioned all of this to him?" Star asked. Sam looked at her curiously. "How is he supposed to know why you're mad at him if you haven't told him what's bugging you?"

"He's been all over me like a horny cat for the last few weeks! It should be obvious!" Sam insisted.

"Jazz told me early on that if I had a problem with someone, I should talk." Star smiled. "Not yell, not accuse, nothing except talking. Then maybe the things I thought meant they were being mean to me, would be things they didn't think were a big deal, and we could talk about doing things differently." Star looked at her. "It's certainly worked with Paulina. A lot of things she did with me, she never realized hurt me. And now she's changed."

Sam didn't respond, instead just looking down at the carpet. They sat in silence for a few minutes until they heard a knock at the door. "I'll get it, you relax." Star patted her friend's shoulder and headed for the door, pulling it open. Her eyes opened wide when she saw Paulina standing on the front step, holding a black shadow tenderly in her arms. "P… Paulina?"

"Danny Phantom told me to come here." Paulina hugged Mange tighter against her chest. "I don't know why he wanted me here, but I don't want him to hurt her so I listened. Can I come in?"

"Um… it's not my house, but I guess." Star moved aside to let Paulina walk inside. Sam stood up when she saw Mange, her eyes going wide. "Where did Danny Phantom go?"

"I don't know. He said something about getting a favor." Paulina shrugged.

"A favor?" Star blinked and looked back at Sam. "You have any idea where he went?"

"I have an idea." Sam sighed. "I just hate it when he goes there…"

* * *

Colors swirled like a vortex of infinite energy, spinning and coalescing around one another in an endless dance that was beautiful to behold. This was the vision that greeted Danny Fenton as he slipped out of his body on top of the isolated roof, moving out of his own body as a free spirit, unchained by mortal flesh and the barrier between the world of the living, and the world of the dead. This was Eternity, and it was here that he found those whose lives had passed, ones he'd considered precious friends.

"Hey Danny." Danielle looked up from the small patch of ground that floated in the middle of the infinite colors, like an island in deep space. She had some action figures spread out in front of her, with a young boy slightly younger than her sitting on the other side, staring at them with a fierce gaze and a broad grin. "What's up?"

"Hey, I'd love to chat, but this isn't really a friendly visit." Danny walked up to her. "Do you think you could take me to the Queen of Eternity? I'm hoping she can help me with something back on Earth."

"Sure thing." Danielle stood up, then realized Danny was staring down at the boy curiously. "Oh, sorry. This is my new friend, Robbie. Robbie, this is my… um… cousin, Danny."

"Do I know you?" Danny cocked his head. The boy looked so familiar.

The boy cackled and smirked crookedly as his voice gave away his identity. "Ahoy, matey."

Danny's eyes went wide. "Youngblood? That's you?"

Danielle chuckled. "You were right, he does remember you."

Robbie grinned. "You owe me ten bucks. A couple more and I can buy me a new parrot."

Danny blinked. "They have pet stores in the afterlife?"

"If we want them to." Danielle smirked. "Now, on to business. I'll be back in a few minutes Robbie." Danielle waved. The boy waved them off with a grunt and looked down at the cards again as Danielle started walking toward the edge of the tiny landmass. As she approached the edge, another piece broke off and began to track her steps through the infinite vortex of Eternity. Danny rushed to keep up with her, having no land of his own to stand on without her. No sooner did Robbie vanish from sight behind them than two little girls with big round heads appeared in front of them. One wore a tiny blue dress and had blonde hair up in pigtails, while the other wore pink and had light red hair tied up in a bright red bow.

They seemed to be playing a game of jacks which, by the expressions on their faces, Bubbles was winning.

"Aha! I won!" Bubbles grinned.

"Um… I'm not sure those are the rules." Blossom pointed out.

"They are if I want them to be." Bubbled giggled and stuck out her tongue. Blossom rolled her eyes, then turned toward Danny and Danielle when she realized they were approaching. Bubbles followed her gaze, then her lips spread into a wild smile. "Danny Phantom! What can I do for you?"

"You can control life force energy, right?" Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "Or something like that… I honestly have no idea what you call it."

Bubbles giggled. "It has no name, but I know what you mean, and yes. I control everything I feel needs to be controlled, though I prefer to let the world run itself."

"Great policy, really, but I need kind of a favor." Danny approached her and knelt down in front of her. "See, there's this being on Earth that can't make its own… something I think you're familiar with…"

Bubbles stared at him a moment, then her expression darkened. "You want to save Mange."

Blossom's eyes went wide. "What!? SAVE Mange!? Buttercup almost died trying to get rid of her!"

"I know, but I can't just kill her or let her die now." Danny shrugged helplessly. "She's helpless! I took her down without a sweat, and she just looked frightened. I couldn't bring myself to finish her off, and if I left her she would just start hurting more people to get her strength back up. So I want you to give her enough energy to survive. You're the master of reality as we know it; it should be easy for you."

Bubbles scoffed. "Easy? To alter the fabric of reality in one tiny space at one single instant? Have you ever tried it? It's like trying to poke an atom with a sledgehammer! There's a reason I try not to use my powers to affect Earth if I can help it, because it's hard not to affect anything around what I want to change."

"Okay, I get it." Danny sighed. "But there's got to be something we can do. I don't want to kill her; I don't want to kill anyone. Paulina seems convinced she's changed, and I want to give her a chance."

"She's not even a real person!" Blossom complained. "She was just a figment of Buttercup's imagination that split off into a single-minded-" Blossom looked about to continue, but Bubbles raised one hand to signal for silence. Blossom grumbled under her breath and stopped speaking while Bubbles looked up into Danny's eyes. They stared at each other for several long moments until a smile spread across Bubbles' lips.

"You're a good person, Danny Phantom." Bubbles giggled. "I remember being like you, before I came here and could see all of the horrible things that people will do to one-another." She sighed and shook her head. "Sometimes, it's hard to believe in a world where people will do such things. It's hard to believe that people can change when they lie so very much." She looked to the side as Blossom approached and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Bubbles smiled and put a hand on Blossom's.

"So what do you say?" Danny asked. "If you can't just read her mind and see if she's telling the truth, why don't we give her a chance? If I have to, I'll take her down someday. But I was given a second chance once, by a dear friend who knew that I could someday be capable of killing hundreds, thousands of people. Wherever she came from, whatever she is, I want her to have a chance too."

Bubbles reached into her dress and pulled out a small vial. Inside of it was a strange glowing liquid that seemed to be swirling with all of the colors and energies of Eternity. "Human innocence is a gift… one that I can't mistrust." She held it out to him with a kind smile. "I miss it sometimes, but it makes me happy to see it in you." Danny smiled and took the vial from her. "That is just enough to give her life to live… but not her full strength."

"If she's being honest, it'll be enough. Thank you." Danny stuffed the vial in a pocket. "Um… if this is just my spirit… how…"

"Some mysteries are best left mysterious." Bubbles giggled. "Go now. I have winning to do." Bubbles turned back to her game with Blossom.

So Danny turned to leave, with Danielle following close behind them. Soon Bubbles and Blossom's little landmass vanished from sight, leaving Danny and Danielle standing alone in the sea of Eternal energy.

"Sounds like some pretty heavy stuff." Danielle looked up at him. "Will you come back and tell me some time? I like listening to your stories."

Danny smiled and ruffled her hair. "I'll be back to tell you soon, I promise. Now I should get this back as soon as I can." He pulled his cousin/clone into a soft hug, then closed his eyes and let his spirit drift, away on the strands of Eternity and back toward the place where it had once belonged. It broke easily through the barrier, and emerged from the blankness of limbo to open his physical, human eyes to the afternoon sun.

Curiously Danny's hand reached down to the pocket of his jeans, to discover the vial Bubbles had given him tucked neatly inside. "Weird…" he muttered to himself as he climbed to his feet. His body shifted back to its ghostly form and he took off across the sky toward his home.

He floated in through the front wall and landed in the middle of the living room, keeping his ghost-form intact. Sam, Star, and Paulina all turned to look at him. Paulina was still clutching the small, black form of Mange tightly in her arms. The shadow looked weak and frail, its glowing green eyes frightened and unsure as they peered up at him from the depths of the darkness. She definitely looked like she'd changed since Danny last saw her at a funeral in Townsville. But time would reveal the truth, or the lie.

"Here." Danny walked forward and held out the vial. "This should give her enough energy to live, but not to fight."

"Is that okay, Mange?" Paulina looked down at the shadow.

Mange panted softly. "I don't want to fight, mother. Living is enough…" So Paulina took the vial from Danny and carefully tilted it up toward Mange's face. Danny didn't see a mouth, but she must have had one, because the liquid vanished inside of her head where it should have been. The girls and Danny gathered around to watch the shadow, as the last of the liquid vanished and its head lolled back against Paulina's arm.

"Mange?" Paulina murmured worriedly.

"Trust me, she'll be fine." Danny smiled. "You should go home and let her rest."

"Oh… okay…" Paulina gulped. "Thanks, Danny…" She looked at him for a moment, then looked away and rushed toward the front door, leaving as quickly as she could. She never acted quite right around Danny in his ghost form. It was understandable, he supposed, but he almost missed her worshipping him like she used to.

Relieved, Danny let his ghost form fade and turned to the other girls. Instantly his eyes met Sam's, and they stared at each other in oppressive silence, as if each was trying to outstare the other. After a while they heard Star cough, mumble something about missed appointments, and rush to leave the house, leaving them standing alone together in the living room. Still neither of them spoke until one of Sam's arms rose to rub the other.

"You have something to say to me?" Sam asked.

"You first." Danny looked around nervously, so that he wouldn't have to look at her.

"I don't like it when you touch me so much." Sam blurted out suddenly. As Danny stared at her she sat down on the edge of the couch. "It seems like… like that's all you want. All I'm good for." She huffed, then took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Even when we go out you're holding my hand or something."

"Sam…" Danny approached the couch and sat down beside her. "I don't see you as a 'toy' or something… I just want you to find me attractive." It was Sam's turn to stare at him, her eyes going wide in surprise. "It seems like every time I do start or suggest something you get mad. You never want to even make out anymore. Am I just not attractive to you?"

"That's not it at all." Sam shook her head. "I don't want it because you're so pushy about it."

"I didn't mean to be pushy about it, and I'm sorry if it seemed that way." Danny told her. He chuckled and raised one hand to the small bruise on his cheek. "And I'm REALLY sorry for teasing you yesterday. It was out of line."

Sam chuckled as well. "Sorry I punched you. All this right after Jazz heaped such praise on us for keeping our relationship healthy, too."

"Hah, yeah. What would she say if she saw us yesterday?"

"Probably know right away what to do about it. She always did." Sam chuckled. In a moment she stood up and held her hand out to him, which Danny took without hesitation. "Come on, we can talk more in our room." So Danny stood and walked into the back with her, smiling to himself. Relationships really were hard, but it looked like they could make it work after all.

* * *

Paulina lay in bed that evening, one hand running over Mange's large, black head. It was nearly invisible in the dark bedroom, lit only by the soft pale glow of the moon through the window nearby. Mange's eyes glowed through the darkness, looking strong and steady as they stared up into her eyes, her head lying against Paulina's chest.

"I'm so glad you're okay now, Mange. And we'll never have to hurt anyone again."

"Never, mother." Mange whispered softly. Paulina smiled and closed her eyes, feeling her 'daughter's' steady breath as she drifted to sleep.

Mange's green eyes watched her through the darkness for several more minutes, then seemed to vanish into the darkness.

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

All he could see in the dark room was a pair of hands floating in the darkness, illuminated by a powerful green glow that reminded him very much of ghostly ectoplasm. But it was impossible… the ghosts were all gone, weren't they?

"I don't know who you are." Danny clenched his fists, which began to drive back the darkness with their own green glow. "But you just made a very. Big. Mistake." His fists flew forward, sending a massive energy burst toward his assailant, but the glowing claws seemed to vanish and the burst carried through to punch a hole the size of his body in the wall behind it.

Danny didn't even have time to ask where the attacker went before the flow shined right in front of his face, arching toward him. Danny yelped as the fist hit his nose, driving him back into the door with enough force to crack the wood, bending it outward. Danny grunted as his body twitched and nearly fell to the floor, spasming as if engulfed in electricity. "Ugh… what on Earth…" He groaned in pain and raised a hand to his head.

"Danny!" Sam screamed and stumbled to the side as the glowing green hands passed her, the body still concealed by the shadows. "Danny, get up!"

Danny growled and slid his back up the door, clenching his fists and bringing them forward again. He gasped when one glowing hand knocked them aside, sending his next ecto-blast punching through the wall into Jazz's room, which was thankfully vacant with Jazz off to college. The other glowing fist came around before he could even breathe, uppercutting him clean through the door, which shattered in a pile of wood that flew to the floor around him until he landed on his back further down the hallway.

"Ggghgh…" Danny grunted in pain and strained to push himself up from the floor. His body was shaking with tendrils of green energy seeping through his body, sapping his strength. As he looked up with wide eyes the pair of glowing green hands approached through the dark hallway, the energy surging brighter around them as they came to a stop limp before him. His eyes closed quickly when the hallway light came on, then opened even wider in surprise.

"You're… human?" Danny pushed himself up and scrambled backward away from the woman. A mass of black hair tumbled down around a strange, pale green face with large, black lips set into a confident smirk. On her body she wore a tight black and green suit, the colors split across her body at various points right down to her hands, which were covered in one green and one black glove. She stepped closer to him and let out a soft chuckle.

"Nothing personal, kid." The woman raised one of her pulsing green hands. "But a deal is a deal."

Episode 24: She Go Freak Show


	5. She Go Freak Show

(Notes: "Kim Possible" is owned by Disney)

Episode 24: She Go Freak Show

The sun was high in the cool, beautiful blue sky outside, shining down across the small town of Amity Park. The people watched from the ground as his ghostly form flew over the rooftops, holding the love of his life in his arms. There was a grin on his lips while the people on the ground cheered loudly. Loudly for him, and the love he never planned to let go. "Danny! Danny!" The crowd's chant was intoxicating, almost as much as the woman he held before him in his arms.

"Mmm…" Sam moaned softly and leaned closer into him with a mischievous smile on her lips. "Danny…"

"Sam…" Danny mumbled as his arm reached out. He could feel soft silk in his hand, but he jerked when a hand slapped the back of his. "Ow!" He drew back his stinging hand with an irritable grumble and opened his eyes. Sam was sitting up in bed beside him in her blue nightgown, with her legs crossed and her powerful laptop humming on her lap, casting its bright blue glow across a face that was watching him with some amusement.

Sam smirked. "I thought we talked about the 'touching without permission' thing."

Danny grumbled. "I can't be held accountable for my unconscious mind." He sat up with a yawn and rubbed his eyes, casting a glance at the clock. "Sam, it's almost 2 in the morning. Why are you still awake?"

"I couldn't sleep. So I thought I'd get some work done." Sam gestured to the screen of her laptop, letting him adjust on the bed for a better look. It was open to a word processor, but where he might have expected someone else to have a homework paper displayed; he could instead see two characters of a novel engaged in an amusing, but mostly inane conversation.

"Oh yeah, your writing." Danny chuckled. "To think it all started as an attempt to cover up our relationship."

"You were a girl at the time." Sam chuckled. "My mom would've killed me if she thought I was thinking of going out with another girl. She almost threw a fit when I told her I wanted to marry one."

"Oh, and who is this girl you speak of?" Danny smiled and scooted closer to her. "Not someone better than me I hope."

"She had her moments." Sam watched him with a playful smile.

"Awww… so she was better than me?" Danny pouted.

"Not even a little bit." Sam wrapped one arm around his shoulders to pull him into a gentle, but brief kiss. "She wasn't half the man you are."

Danny laughed. "Well, there are some things you just can't fake."

"Agreed." Sam kissed him again, this time letting their lips linger together before she let it break.

Her face lingered near his as her hands closed the lid of her laptop and slid it to the mattress on her other side before she leaned into Danny again for another, deeper kiss that lasted even longer. Danny's arms pulled her into a tight embrace, his eyes closing as her body moved up against his through the thin nightgown. Danny was intoxicated by her almost instantly, but not enough to miss the familiar, but nearly forgotten feeling rising in his throat that let a small wisp of blue smoke pass from his lips.

Danny's eyes went wide and he broke the kiss, letting the smoke escape from their cupped lips to drift into the air. "Ghost sense!?" Sam's eyes went wide.

"Look out!" Danny gripped his wife tightly and yanked her to the side as a green blast cut through the dark room, blowing a hole in their headboard the size of a baseball. Danny threw himself into the air toward the door, flying to the floor and pushing Sam behind him as he turned to face their assailant, growling and transforming instantly into his ghost-form.

All he could see in the dark room was a pair of hands floating in the darkness, illuminated by a powerful green glow that reminded him very much of ghostly ectoplasm. But it was impossible… the ghosts were all gone, weren't they?

"I don't know who you are." Danny clenched his fists, which began to drive back the darkness with their own green glow. "But you just made a very. Big. Mistake." His fists flew forward, sending a massive energy burst toward his assailant, but the glowing claws seemed to vanish and the burst carried through to punch a hole the size of his body in the wall behind it.

Danny didn't even have time to ask where the attacker went before the flow shined right in front of his face, arching toward him. Danny yelped as the fist hit his nose, driving him back into the door with enough force to crack the wood, bending it outward. Danny grunted as his body twitched and nearly fell to the floor, spasming as if engulfed in electricity. "Ugh… what on Earth…" He groaned in pain and raised a hand to his head.

"Danny!" Sam screamed and stumbled to the side as the glowing green hands passed her, the body still concealed by the shadows. "Danny, get up!"

Danny growled and slid his back up the door, clenching his fists and bringing them forward again. He gasped when one glowing hand knocked them aside, sending his next ecto-blast punching through the wall into Jazz's room, which was thankfully vacant with Jazz off to college. The other glowing fist came around before he could even breathe, uppercutting him clean through the door, which shattered in a pile of wood that flew to the floor around him until he landed on his back further down the hallway.

"Ggghgh…" Danny grunted in pain and strained to push himself up from the floor. His body was shaking with tendrils of green energy seeping through his body, sapping his strength. As he looked up with wide eyes the pair of glowing green hands approached through the dark hallway, the energy surging brighter around them as they came to a stop limp before him. His eyes closed quickly when the hallway light came on, then opened even wider in surprise.

"You're… human?" Danny pushed himself up and scrambled backward away from the woman. A mass of black hair tumbled down around a strange, pale green face with large, black lips set into a confident smirk. On her body she wore a tight black and green suit, the colors split across her body at various points right down to her hands, which were covered in one green and one black glove. She stepped closer to him and let out a soft chuckle.

"Nothing personal, kid." The woman raised one of her pulsing green hands. "But a deal is a deal." With a howl and dropped to her knee and sent a punch straight toward his head. Danny's arms snapped up from the floor to catch her wrist, stopping her glowing fist inches in front of his. He gasped when the green energy began to seep from his hands into his own, flowing through his body like a powerful electrical surge.

"Gggrgh…" Danny grunted in pain, struggling to hold her fist back. "Get… away…"

"Huh?" The woman blinked in surprise when his energy began to seep back up her arm, surging into her torso with furious intensity. "Aaahh! What the…" The woman's arms and fingers twitching and she began to furiously try to escape his grasp. "L… let go of me! Let go!" They both growled and grunted in pain as the green energy flowed through both of their bodies, ripping at their muscles until Danny was seeing stars floating before his eyes.

"Get off of him!" Sam's arm wrapped around the woman's throat and yanked her back, pulling her off of Danny and throwing her into the wall, where she hit with a thud and sank to the floor, panting in pain. The woman rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself up, panting heavily as the last of the green energy crackled across her shoulders and arms, down into the floor.

Danny pushed himself up to a sitting position, though he couldn't do much else. His arms were shaking so much he nearly fell to his back, but at least his attacker wasn't doing much better. "Wh… who are you?" Danny asked quickly. "How did you find me?"

The woman growled, completely ignoring his questions. "He didn't say anything about this…" Angrily she shoved herself up from the floor and darted back into the bedroom.

"Hey! Hold on!" Sam ran after her, but stopped at the door of the bedroom, looking around quickly. "She's already gone…" Sam whirled and rushed back to Danny's side, kneeling down to wrap her arms around him and steady his shaking. "Danny, are you okay?"

"Man, I feel like I'm vibrating." Danny clutched his arms tightly, unable to stop himself from shuddering in his wife's arms. His breath came in deep, ragged gasps as he stared at the window on the other side of his bedroom. "Who the Hell was that…?"

* * *

The door flew open with a thunderous crack and a woman stomped inside, growling and raising her hands over her head. Thick green energy surged around her fingers, lighting up the inside of the otherwise dark building. "Hey! Get your butt out here! I have something to discuss with you, freak!" She shouted angrily.

"Tsk, tsk. Such needless animosity, Shego. To the man who is paying you very well for your services." A high, irritating voice spoke from the shadows in the corners of the room. "And the name, as you well know…" The man walked into the light from the front door, holding his grungy black coat around his body with his hands in his pockets. His red lips curled into a smile underneath his sharp-beaked nose. "Is Freakshow."

"I don't care!" Shego marched up to him, her hands flashing and her eyes glaring. "You didn't tell me anything about the kid having weirdo-powers! You didn't tell me he could turn MY powers against me!" She growled. "I hate going into that kind of thing blind!"

"Aaahhhh…" Freakshow seemed unperturbed by her approach, his smile broadening into a wicked grin. "This confirms what I suspected all along."

Shego grabbed his collar, growling. "What? I was a guinea pig!?"

"Not quite, my dear." Freakshow gazed calmly into her eyes. Frankly, she wasn't sure if he was overconfident or just too crazy to realize that he was in serious danger here. That disturbed her somehow. "You are the key to destroying Danny Phantom once and for all. The key to rending him into nothingness, mind, body, and spirit."

"What?" Shego blinked in surprise. Freakshow raised his small cane between them, using it to push her wrist away from his shirt. Shego frowned, but let go, watching him step back and adjust his jacket with his cane hooked through one arm.

"Have you ever wondered about your powers, Shego?" Freakshow asked calmly. "Your brothers all got abilities that appear in nature. Cellular division, a dense molecular structure, physical self-alteration, but you… what force do you think could have given you the powers you possess? They don't occur in nature… at least, not as you know it."

"How do you know about my brothers? For that matter, how do you know where I got my powers?" Shego narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "That sure as Hell wasn't on my resume'."

"It was no coincidence that I came to you for this task, Shego." Freakshow gestured to her and turned to walk further into the building. The lights flared to life around him as he walked, though he didn't lift a finger to activate them. "I sought you out because there were those who took great interest in you… before they were all slaughtered like pigs." He chuckled and shook his head as he approached a downward slant, whose bottom was concealed in shadows.

"You ARE crazy." Shego walked up beside him to peer into the shadows ahead. When she looked at Freakshow he was giving her a wide, toothy grin.

"Yes. And you love it. Hahahaaaahhhh!" Freakshow leapt onto the sharp slant, landing on his back and sliding down the smooth metal surface into the shadows below with his laughter still echoing through the halls.

Shego rested her hands on her hips with a slight smirk. "More entertaining than Dr. D, I'll give him that."

Shego leapt onto the slant on her feet, her boots skidding across the well-waxed surface straight down into the darkness. She weaved through lights in the darkness, kicking off of several walls to keep from crashing until she spun out into the open air. Still unable to see, Shego flailed for anything to catch herself on, but fell through the air until she landed on something that felt strangely like a hammock covered in pillows.

She blinked from the sudden shock of lights flaring to life, lighting up a massive metal room with a high-domed ceiling. Broken computer parts littered the ground, which clearly hadn't been cleaned in a long time and were also covered in dirt. On the other side of the room, Freakshow stood with one hand on a computer console. Sparks occasionally shot out from behind it, and there was a crack running down the side of its frame, but its monitor was still showing a sharp 3D image of a woman. In fact… it was Shego.

"What the…!?" Shego leapt up in alarm and jumped out of the large hammock, landing on the floor in a crouch and rushing up to look at the image. "Someone's been spying on me!?"

"For quite some time." Freakshow's hand patted the computer. "You see, the previous owners of this place were known as the Guys in White. Their business was ghosts, or more specifically, the study and eradication of ghost kind."

"Ghosts?" Shego scoffed. "That has nothing to do with me!"

"Actually, Shego, for a time they believed you were the key to their goal." Freakshow tapped a few keys on the computer's keyboard, which brought up a blueprint over her body, which seemed to be measuring energy type and levels at various points in her body as she used her powers. "You see, your powers don't occur in nature… on this planet, at least. Your powers came from a substance that the Guys in White long ago dubbed Ectoranium. A substance whose energy radiates at the opposite frequency from ghostly Ectoplasm. Your power is a concentrated form of this energy. In fact, I wager you've only tapped a small portion of its power."

Shego stared at the computer for a moment, then looked down at her hand as it began to glow with its eerie green light. She looked over her shoulder s Freakshow approached from behind with his hands clasped behind his back. "What do you say, Shego? Will you kill me for neglecting to tell you everything up front? Or will you earn your reward and learn more of your gifts?"

Shego looked at him curiously for a moment. "You're making a heck of an offer here. What did this kid do to you?"

Freakshow's smile faded into an angry scowl, his eyes almost seeming to glow red for an instant. "Everything." The expression left his face as quickly as it came, fading back into his calm smile as he adjusted his long trench goat and turned away from her. "Danny Phantom is the only direction my life has anymore. My revenge is all I have… I don't even have my memories anymore. Not from before he destroyed my life."

* * *

It started almost three years ago, now. It was as if I awakened in this place for the first time, in the arms of the Guys in White. I don't know what I did, or why I was here, and they refused to tell me anything. They locked me away in a cell, and left me there for years, feeding me scraps of food that were barely enough to keep me alive. I pleaded with them time and again to tell me why I was here, pleaded to be set free or for them to just tell me who I was. But they always just laughed.

This went on forever it seemed. I was cut off from everything, and everyone. A couple of times I heard them speaking about how dangerous I was. I never wanted to hurt anyone! I only wanted my freedom! Is that truly so much to ask? Is it!? But apparently it was, because they ignored my please and continued talking about me as if I wasn't even there, until one day I heard one of them mention a ghost. I could almost remember… a tendril of thought that refused to touch my mind however much I tried to grab hold of it…

And then it happened. One year ago, I heard alarms blare through the compound. The sound of laser-fire was ended with bloodcurdling screams. I could only sit and listen as the Guys in White were slaughtered, until the blood of my assigned guardians splashed against the wall outside of my cell. I could only huddle in fear at the corner of my cell as he appeared. His hair was gleaming like white fire, and I will never forget those demonic red eyes.

I remember my heart stopping when those eyes turned on me. They flashed in recognition. He knew me! Though I could not remember him, he approached the cell with a twisted smile on his lips. His voice was almost a match for the demon in his eyes.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the human who would be God." His laugh twisted the very air around him. I could see the presence he was emitting, a presence I never knew existed. That of pure, unconditional evil. "Seeing you again is a nice bonus."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I told him, though I could barely breathe for the fear in my throat. "Who are you?"

"I am Danny Phantom." The man grinned as though enjoying my pain. "Have you enjoyed your cell all these years, Freakshow?"

"Please… you've got to let me out of here." I grabbed the bars of my cell desperately. I knew it was stupid to plead with a man who would so mercilessly slaughter others, but I was desperate and there were no other options. "Please, have mercy."

"Mercy? Perhaps if any humanity remained in me, I would have some sympathy for you. But sorry, I'm all out of humanity." The man laughed his horrible laugh and turned to leave. "Die slowly, and please do scream. It calms my nerves."

"Wait! No!" I screamed, as I knew he wanted. I would have done anything, but it wasn't enough. My screams were drowned out by his laughter as he left the prison block on his way down the hallway, leaving me alone once again.

It took me hours to fully realize what was to happen now. There was nobody around, nobody who seemed to know I existed down here. Nobody to bring me my food or release me. If I couldn't find a way out, I would starve down here, if the increasingly stale oxygen didn't make me suffocate first. I was going to die. Days passed, and as they slipped away I could feel my strength fading.

That is, until I finally decided to try something desperate. Something that never crossed my rational mind before. I rammed the door. Using my body as a ram, I attacked over and over. The pain was extraordinary, and each assault sent sharper and sharper stabs racing through my body. I sometimes wonder if my screams made any noise. There was no one around to hear them, after all. But just when my strength was about to give out, right when I was thinking of giving up, I broke through the door into the freedom outside of my cell.

The first place I went was the kitchen. It all tasted so good, even the stale bread I was forced to eat. Being locked up with nothing to eat can make anything you eat the greatest thing in the world. It felt like I couldn't eat fast enough, but soon I felt like I was going to burst. Isn't it strange how that happens?

When I was full I found a computer in one of the main rooms. It took me some time to get it running, but when it did, all of the questions I'd been asking were answered in a tidal wave of realization. My memories had been wiped clean, I had been left to rot in this place, my love had been destroyed, and I had been left to die all by the same man. One man whose eyes will never fade from my mind, and whose laugh even now rings in my ears! One man who destroyed everything I ever was, and everything I ever knew! There was just one man responsible for all of this! DANIEL FENTON!

* * *

Freakshow's cane slammed into the screen of the computer monitor, shattering it on impact and raining shards down on the slick steel floor. Shego took a step back in surprise and raised her eyes to the man. His smile had faded, replaced with a dark, focused expression that regarded the shattered glass on his coat with only mild interest. One hand rose to pluck the glass from his coat and flick it to the floor.

"A.K.A… Danny Phantom." Freakshow turned his sharp eyes on Shego, who was stunned by the change that had overtaken him in the last few minutes. "His death is all that matters to me now. To see him suffer as I have is the purpose of my life." He approached and held one hand out to her. "And your power could make this dream of mine into his nightmare. Accept what I have to offer, and I will give you the means to match him, and surpass him. To destroy him once and for all."

Shego looked down at his hand, then up at his eyes again warily. This man was completely insane. She was used to dealing with lunatics, but he made Drakken and Junior look like well-adjusted citizens. Still, the promise of unlocking the keys to her powers was enticing. She had always wondered if there was more to them, is maybe there was some limit she imposed on them without knowing it. Having those powers unlocked could create whole new possibilities for her. What was the price, really? The life of one boy she didn't know? That was nothing to her.

So she held out her hand and took his in a firm grip. "I'm in."

NEXT TIME on Haunted Legacies

Kim Possible's head broke the water with a splash, her lips sucking in a deep breath of air as her body settled back into the Olympic sized swimming pool located in the back of the college she and Ron had chosen after High School graduation. Speaking of Ron, she could see him lounging in one of the long chairs beside the pool, watching her with a calm smile on his face. His naked mole rat, Rufus, was sitting in a tiny chair on the table beside him.

One of Ron's hands reached into Kim's backpack, pulling out her hairdryer grappling hook to whirl it around in his hand. "You know, I really need to convince Wade to make me some of this stuff."

Kim looked at him from the water. "Are you sure? It won't be a problem with the whole pants thing?"

"K.P., since you got me that belt, my pants are always on." He yelped when the hook suddenly fired toward the ceiling, ripping his swimming trunks clean off with a wicked 'CRACK'. Kim yelped and turned away, covering her mouth with her hands while Ron sighed. "Touche', universe. Touche'." Kim dared to glance over as Ron's bare feet slapped across the pavement while he ran toward the dressing rooms, covering his shame with both hands.

Kim shook her head, then looked at her bag by the long chairs as her Kimmunicator began to beep. She swept through the water to the edge and reached out from the water, grabbing her bag to fish out her Kimmunicator and pop it open while she leaned against the side of the pool. "What's the sitch, Wade?"

"Kim!" Wade exclaimed from the small screen. His face was red and he looked like he was about to pass out. "H-help!"

Kim's eyes went wide. "Wade!? What's wrong!? Are you okay!?"

"Kim… girl… help…" Wade's breath was deep and rapid, his eyes darting from side-to-side. "Need help… with a girl."

"A girl?" Kim blinked

Episode 25: Wade's Third Date


	6. Wade's Third Date

(notes:

-"Kim Possible" is owned by Disney

-"Fillmore!" is owned by Disney)

Episode 25: Wade's Third Date

A dark night, a cold Pepsi, and the almost ethereal glow of the LCD computer monitor sitting on his desk. Yes, this was truly where Wade belonged on a Friday night, or any other night of the week. His computer equipment was all state-of-the-art, connecting him to the internet or any other system in the world in the blink of an eye, and he knew without being arrogant that he had the talent to back up his hardware. He was Kim Possible's go-to guy, the one who managed her web site and got her into places she shouldn't go.

But even he had a life. Yes, it was true. And his life was looking back at him from the soft, comfortable glow of his computer monitor on which a white Instant Messaging box was displayed. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of the name displayed in blue in front of his eyes.

DetectiveGirl11: I can't believe you've never seen What Dreams May Come. It's a superb and fascinating movie with lots of powerful metaphors.

Wade considered for a moment before responding.

JadedWade36: I guess I was just never one for a lot of fiction. I prefer the cold hard hand of science and technology… with a dash of love.

DetectiveGirl11: LoL. Love, huh? Isn't love illogical?

JadedWade36: Completely. It's one of our weak human flaws.

DetectiveGirl11: Well, I guess our flaws are what make us fun, then.

JadedWade36: There's certainly an argument to be made, there.

Wade leaned back in his comfortable computer chair, lifting his soda to his lips to take a swig. His eyes only left the screen long enough to make sure the nose of the bottle didn't go up his nose when he took a drink, and the screen remained blank with no new responses. He was thinking about sending another message when finally he got a response.

DetectiveGirl11: Hey, how long have we known each other, Wade?

JadedWade36: Two years now. Since our moms signed us up for the Lil' Geniuses Newsgroup.

DetectiveGirl11: LoL, I completely forgot about that! I haven't checked that e-mail account in years.

JadedWade36: Yeah, it got kind of boring after a while. There's only so much genius to be found in a group whose highest ambition is learning basic mathematics a few years before everyone else.

Wade leaned back, waiting several more minutes with no further response. It wasn't like his friend to respond slowly, she was usually so quick to respond to him he had to struggle to keep up. At last, though, her response nearly made his heart stop.

DetectiveGirl11: Agreed. Anyway, the reason I ask is because I was wondering if, after two years, maybe we could see each other tomorrow evening. In person.

Wade leaned back in his chair, his eyes fixed on the last two words. In person? That was a huge leap, one he wasn't sure he was ready to make. Sure, talking to a girl on the internet wasn't such a big deal, but meeting one in the flesh? Seeing her? Having her see him? Maybe even touching her hand? The thoughts made his cheeks burn hot and he could already feel his palms growing clammy. His heart was racing… but wait, he had to reply. He had to say something? How long had he just been sitting here staring at the screen now? Too long, what if she thought he wasn't interested? But if he said yes, would he seem eager? He didn't want to seem too eager, especially when he wasn't sure he wanted to. Not that he didn't like her, but it was such a big step and-

The ding of the IM box snapped him out of his racing thoughts.

DetectiveGirl11: It's okay if you don't want to. I know it's pretty sudden.

Wade's hands hovered over the keys for another moment, trembling in the air and moving as if of their own volition.

JadedWade36: Yes.

DetectiveGirl11: Yes it's too sudden? Or yes you want to meet?

JadedWade36: Yes.

DetectiveGirl11: Um…

JadedWade36: Sorry, I mean yes. I'd like to meet you.

DetectiveGirl11: Great. I'm going to be in Middleton with my parents tomorrow for some business trip of theirs, and I thought while I was there we could get some ice-cream, if that's okay.

JadedWade36: Yes.

DetectiveGirl11: Hehe, okay. So, in the park in the middle of the town at 5:00 P.M. I'll be wearing an orange sash, so I'll be easy to spot.

JadedWade36: Yes.

DetectiveGirl11: Well, goodnight then. :- I'll see you tomorrow.

JadedWade36: Yes.

DetectiveGirl11 has signed off

Wade spent a few more minutes staring at his computer screen, reading the text over and over again as if sure it was all a hallucination. But it was there, with too much evidence to be fake. It was really going to happen. Tomorrow evening, the girl he'd been talking to for over two years online would be waiting for him in the park.

His hands trembled and his breath began to come in quick, shuddering gasps as his fingers flew across the keyboard, like a drowning shipwreck survivor seeking help. "Kkkiiiiiiimmmmm!"

* * *

Kim Possible's head broke the water with a splash, her lips sucking in a deep breath of air as her body settled back into the Olympic sized swimming pool located in the back of the college she and Ron had chosen after High School graduation. Speaking of Ron, she could see him lounging in one of the long chairs beside the pool, watching her with a calm smile on his face. His naked mole rat, Rufus, was sitting in a tiny chair on the table beside him.

One of Ron's hands reached into Kim's backpack, pulling out her hairdryer grappling hook to whirl it around in his hand. "You know, I really need to convince Wade to make me some of this stuff."

Kim looked at him from the water. "Are you sure? It won't be a problem with the whole pants thing?"

"K.P., since you got me that belt, my pants are always on." He yelped when the hook suddenly fired toward the ceiling, ripping his swimming trunks clean off with a wicked 'CRACK'. Kim yelped and turned away, covering her mouth with her hands while Ron sighed. "Touche', universe. Touche'." Kim dared to glance over as Ron's bare feet slapped across the pavement while he ran toward the dressing rooms, covering his shame with both hands.

Kim shook her head, then looked at her bag by the long chairs as her Kimmunicator began to beep. She swept through the water to the edge and reached out from the water, grabbing her bag to fish out her Kimmunicator and pop it open while she leaned against the side of the pool. "What's the sitch, Wade?"

"Kim!" Wade exclaimed from the small screen. His face was red and he looked like he was about to pass out. "H-help!"

Kim's eyes went wide. "Wade!? What's wrong!? Are you okay!?"

"Kim… girl… help…" Wade's breath was deep and rapid, his eyes darting from side-to-side. "Need help… with a girl."

"A girl?" Kim blinked, then giggled. "Okay, okay. First thing, calm down! She's a girl, not a bomb." Wade nodded and his breath began to slow, though his eyes still looked wild and panicked. "Now why don't you start from the beginning and tell me what's going on?"

"Well, we met two years ago in an online group for young geniuses, and we've been talking ever since. Just a few minutes ago she said she would be in town tomorrow and asked if I wanted to meet with her."

"And you said yes."

"Uh-huh." Wade nodded. "But I- I just don't know. She's never seen a pic of me, what if she doesn't like what she sees? What if I mess something up? I'm always uncomfortable being around others in person, what if I do something wrong and she never speaks to me again?"

"Wade, you're making this more complicated than it needs to be. Just be yourself, and if you like each other, things will fall into place."

"What if she DOESN'T like me?"

"What's not to like about you?" Kim asked. Wade looked at her drolly, then raised his arms and looked down at his plump, somewhat portly round body. "Oh, I see… well, she sounds like a smart girl. I'm sure she'll be able to look past that."

"I don't know. Whatever expectations she had for me will probably be destroyed. I don't want to let her down…"

"But what can you do?" Kim asked.

"There's got to be a way." Wade tapped his chin with one finger, lost deep in thought while he stared at Kim for a few moments. Then he snapped his fingers. "I got it! You know all about fashion and stuff, maybe you can make me look as good as possible, and talk me through the date."

"Wade, I can't talk you through it. Didn't I just say it's best to speak from the heart?"

"My heart is confused! I think even can't properly!" Wade's breath quickened again into a panicked fervor. "Please!"

"Okay, okay." Kim shook her head. "I've got the weekends free, so I'll be down there tomorrow afternoon to talk you through your date as best I can. But I won't tell you everything to say, you have to still be yourself. Okay?"

"Thanks, Kim! I owe you one!" Wade smiled.

"After all the scrapes you've gotten me out of, I think I still owe you about three hundred more." Kim smiled. "I'll be in tomorrow. In the meantime, try to relax."

"Relax, right." Wade took a deep breath. "See you then." Wade cut the transmission, leaving the Kimmunicator blank. Kim couldn't help but laugh as she tossed it back to her bag and turned to stroke out into the center of the pool again. Wade's nervousness was almost cute, in a way. She remembered being so young and nervous about relationships. Well, okay, not THAT nervous, but she remembered being young. She also had to wonder what this girl was like. Well, that question would be answered soon enough.

* * *

"I… I don't know about this." Wade gulped as he approached the edge of the park in the center of Middleton. It was a beautiful place this time of year, with the birds chirping from the vibrant green foliage and the sun shining its warmth down upon them while a cooling breeze from the north kept the air from getting too hot. Still Wade could feel his heart pounding and his pulse racing at the prospect of what was to happen here today. "Maybe I could call it off."

"What do you mean call it off? She's probably already here." Kim insisted.

"Besides, you are not wasting that outfit." Monique gripped his shoulder with a frown.

"Kim, did you HAVE to bring Monique?" Wade asked.

"She knows more about fashion than I do, and you wanted to look your best." Kim smirks. "Besides, she said she wanted to see you get a girlfriend so you'd leave her alone."

Wade groaned. "Come on! I said I was sorry!"

"Sorry is fine, but I wanna see the proof that you're over me. Now go find that girl, before she leaves!" Monique pointed toward the center of the park. Wade glared up at her for a moment, then gulped and turned to walk further into the park, tugging nervously at the collar of his shirt. In a moment, Monique leaned closer to Kim. "How much you wanna bet he crashes and burns? Ten dollars?"

Wade didn't hear Kim's response, but hearing that didn't do much to improve his confidence. Here he was, about to meet a girl face-to-face for the first time. He wasn't good with girls, OR face-to-face, how was he supposed to deal with this? The more he thought about it, the more hopeless it seemed. She would look at his fat body and her mind would fill with disgust. She would touch his sweaty palm and jerk away. She would look into his nervous eyes and know how weak he was, what could he do to stop these things? What? WHAT!?

Before he was able to answer himself, the sight of an orange sash brought him to a dead halt. He blinked in surprise, half-expecting her not to show up. But now his eyes moved up her body, covered by a simple black dress that was sleeveless, but covered her from shoulder to knee in a surprisingly modest fashion. Its dark fabric contrasted with the pale, almost frail-looking skin underneath, but there was nothing frail about the pair of green, sharp eyes that caught his own the moment he looked up at her face. Her eyes were shining with intelligence, though something else was in them at the moment as well… was she nervous?

Her green eyes flitted away from his for a moment, then looked back at him as she moved to approach. Her thick black boots tromped across the grass as she approached with her dainty arms dangling at her sides. Wade could only watch her move. She wasn't much older than he was, but her body was well-shaped, with muscles filling out what otherwise would have been a thin and wiry frame. Her face, pale and framed by a bowl of luxurious black hair with bones cut in just the right way, nearly made him melt when she moved close enough to be heard without shouting.

"Wade?" The girl asked with a gentle smile.

"In-In…" Wade cleared his throat. "Ingrid." He smiled. Ingrid Third smiled back and clasped her hands in front of her, holding them down against her legs. For a long time they stared at each other, until Wade heard a voice nearby that made him jump.

"Do something!" Monique hissed sharply from a nearby bush. "Ask her if she likes ice-cream or something!"

"Uh…" Wade gulped. "Do you like ice-cream?"

"I love it," Ingrid replied.

"Oh…" Wade trailed off, trying to think of what to do next. It felt like his brain had shut itself down as a defense mechanism. He tried to think, but encountered only static.

"Ask to buy her ice-cream!" Monique hissed venomously from the bush.

"Um… can I buy you some ice-cream?" Wade smiled nervously.

"Sure, I had kind of a long flight here." Ingrid smiled. Wade split his lips into as much of a smile as his racing mind could conjure up and turned to lead the girl toward the edge of the park.

* * *

Monique's head emerged from the bush with Kim's right beside her, both covered in leaves and twigs. "I'll raise that bet to thirty bucks she gets fed up with him before the night is over."

"If you're so sure he's gonna crash and burn anyway, why are you giving him tips?" Kim asked.

"Purely out of sympathy, I assure you." Monique nodded in the direction the two kids went. "Now come on, they're getting away!"

* * *

Wade walked down the sidewalk with his hands shoved into his pockets, suddenly well-aware of just how much he had to struggle to get his arms around his sides. His cheeks flushed hotly, though Ingrid didn't say anything about it. Was it possible she didn't notice? No way. He knew it was hard to miss. Did she not care? Or was she just trying to spare his feelings for now? Had she already decided to never see him again after this? Why was she still here?

They reached the ice-cream shop soon and went inside to approach the counter. Wade stood stiff in the line, his mind still racing. Ingrid folded her arms across her stomach and looked around the small coffee shop, her eyes darting back and forth across the tables and patrons who were all eating dishes of various sizes.

They ordered their ice-cream, got their cones and sat down in one of the booths across from each other. Wade instantly began sucking on his ice-cream cone, trying to distract his brain from its frantic whirling. What was she thinking now? Wait… she was looking at him! Should he say something? What should he say? They'd talked for hours and hours on the internet about nothing in particular but he couldn't think of anything now! Would asking about movies be too dumb? What about songs? Was that too intimate for a first date? What- ZZZAAAAAAHHHHHH!

Wade clutched his head with both hands and slammed it down onto the table, the cold from the ice-cream digging into his brain like a dozen spikes shooting straight through his eyes. It took him a few minutes to refocus his eyes, but when he did he found Ingrid standing beside him with a worried expression on her face, with one hand resting on his back.

"Wade? Are you okay?" Ingrid rubbed his back. Behind her several other people had gathered, though several others were snickering audibly from other booths, recognizing his brain freeze for what it was. "Do you need a doctor?"

"N… no…" Wade's cheeks grew hot, and laughter broke out from several booths nearby. This was like a nightmare come to life. How could he be so stupid? He was a genius! His IQ was on-par with the greatest minds in history! How could he let something like this happen?

Desperate to escape the chortling, Wade moved to jump from his booth, straight into Ingrid. With a yelp, the girl fell back and hit the floor with a heavy thud. Oh man… he'd knocked her over! He knocked over the only girl who'd ever gone anywhere with him without being under a hypnotic trance! His heart now pounding, Wade whirled and raced for the exit, barging through the door and running as fast as his chubby, stubby legs could take him down the street. For all the nightmares he'd had last night about how today could go, this had to be worse than all of them.

He ran and ran, long after he was out of breath five minutes later. He had almost reached the safety of his house when he felt a hand grab his shoulder and spin him around. "Aaugh!" Wade yelled in surprise and blinked to see Kim holding him with a dumbfounded look on her face. "Kim… were you following me!?"

"Um, yeah." Kim put a hand to her head. "Wade what… what the heck was THAT!?"

"I know!" Wade groaned and cupped his head in his hands. "I can't do it, Kim! I can't handle this! Just let me go back to my computer where I can't do really, REALLY stupid things! Where I'm actually smart!" Wade tried to run into the house, but Kim's grip on his shoulder was tight.

"I don't think so! You are going to apologize to her, at the very least!"

Wade gulped. "I'll send her an e-card…"

"Wade…" Kim sighed and leaned down in front of him, until they were at eye-level with one-another. "Look, I know it's scary dealing with other people sometimes. Especially people you like. But you can't hide behind a computer screen forever. You do like her, don't you?"

"Yeah, but come on Kim. Look at me. Did I ever really stand a chance in the first place? I'm just a fat guy who does stupid things like knock her over for no reason! What kind of girl would want to ever see a guy like that?"

"The kind of girl who knows how it feels to freak out." Wade's eyes went wide and his head jerked to the side. Ingrid was approaching across the lawn with Monique walking behind her. "The kind of girl who was just as scared as he was."

"You were?" Wade's eyes went wide.

"Sure." Ingrid stopped a few feet in front of him, rubbing one of her slender arms nervously. "This is kind of new territory for me too. I don't talk to many boys outside of my school's Safety Patrol. Even those I have talked to have accused me of being freaky and weird. Black clothes, pale skin, likes classical music and literature. I'm not exactly a cheerleader, you know. Throw in the high IQ and photographic memory and plenty of people try to avoid me altogether."

Wade looked down. "Well, you're pretty. At least, I think so. Me? I'm-"

"Handsome." Ingrid finished for him. Wade looked up at her in surprise to see her giving him a gentle smile. "At least, I think so." Ingrid walked up to him and, with a slight hint of a blush on her cheeks, grabbed his hand in one of her own. "I never cared what you looked like anyway, I already know the person inside the shell. And it's a person I really want to know a bit better."

Wade blushed, but didn't pull his hand away from her. "I'd like that." He smiled, then finally got an idea for something they had in common. "Hey, as long as you're here, you want to see my rig?"

"Is this the 7.6 gigahertz CPU attached to an overclocked 3 Gigabyte graphics unit with Truesound tech and unlimited RAM from your specially designed stick that utilizes remote servers across the globe to process data through your self-designed HD Broadband global networking connection?" Ingrid asked.

Wade was sure his eyes had just turned into little hearts as his mouth turned up into a broad, goofy smile. "The very same."

"I'd love to." Ingrid smiled. Wade grinned and gestured toward the door, jogging toward it with her in tow.

"I think you'll like this, it looks better in person than it sounds in a description!" Wade pulled her inside and vanished into the house, eagerly bouncing up the stairs to his room.

* * *

Outside on the lawn, Kim turned to Monique. "I think we did good."

"Yeah, the boy looks happy." Monique returned her smile. "Now come on, I think I owe you some money. Burger on me?"

"Sounds good." Kim cast one more glance up at Wade's room, smiling broadly and turning to walk with her friend down the sidewalk toward the burger place. Whether she was saving the world or helping a friend win the girl of his dreams, it was always nice to accomplish something helpful.


	7. Author's Note

I'm sorry to have to do this, but until further notice, "Haunted Legacies: Season 2" is on hiatus. I promise it will return with more characters, stories, and more of just about everything a story can have... just not now. Please understand, and thank you for reading (even without reviewing much), but my inspiration has turned elsewhere for the time being.


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